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Joan of Arc

Louis Petit de
Julleville

HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY

1^ Digitized by GoOgIC

Victory Book Campaigff^

1S42 ,
Hartford, Cona^

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JOAN OF ARC

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HENRICUS G. S. BOWDEN, Cong. Orat
Censor deputatus

3m)^nmdtut

HERBERTUS CARDINALIS VAUGHAN

ARCHIEPISCOPUS WESTMONASTERIENSIS
Die 17 ApHlis^ 1901.

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JOAN OF ARC

L. PETIT DE JULLBVILLB

TRANSLATED BY

HESTER DAVENPORT

LONDON

DUCKWORTH & CO., 3, HENRIETTA STREET, W.C.

NEW YORK, CINCINNATI & CHICAGO : DUBLIN :

BBNZIGBR BROS. M. H. GILL ft SON.

1901

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Authorised Translation
All Rights Reserved

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CHILDHOOD

CHINON

ORLEANS

RHEIMS

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

PARIS AND COMPliCNB

CHAPTER VI

THE PRISON

CHAPTER VII

THE TRIAL— THE PUBLIC HEARING

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vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER VIII

PAGB

THE TRIAL (continueiiy-lH THE PRISON .123

CHAPTER IX

THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE -143

CHAPTER X

THE REHABILITATION . l66

APPENDIX

DECREE CONCERNING THE CAUSE FOR THE
BEATIFICATION AND CANONISATION OF THE
VENERABLE SERVANT OF GOD, JOAN OF ARC 1 85

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JOAN OF ARC

CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD

HE life of Joan of Arc has been written by

^ eminent historians, and in these pages it is not
our intention to attempt afresh that which has been
already well done by them. We shall only recall in
a summary manner the political and military events
which composed her wonderful history, and shall
speak very briefly of those persons who furthered or
hindered her mission. Our object is not to make a
study of Charles VII., La Tr^moille, the Duke of
Alen^on, Dunois, or of the soldiers, politicians,
theologians and prelates — all the contemporaneous
history connected with Joan of Arc — but of Joan her-
self and of Joan only. It is her soul which we wish
to try to understand and explain. We shall there-
fore pay especial attention to her own words, words
spoken to her king, to her companions in arms, or
to her judges. Her own testimony is by far the
most trustworthy, simple, candid and expressive, and
Joan of Arc still remains the best historian of Joan
of Arc. We shall also consider the mass of evidence

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JOAN OP ARC

collected during the case for rehabilitation,^ re-
membering that if it adds in some measure to her
glory it can contribute few new features to her
moral stature, the beauty of which was sufficiently
apparent in her attitude and her answers at the trial,
and indeed stood out with an intensity of life and
truth beyond the reach of any document. We shall
not, however, neglect the accounts of contemporary
chroniclers, though it is impossible not to regret that
their indirect and second-hand evidence should so
frequently be lifeless and even at times inaccurate.
Still, they are agreed upon all the essential points ;
and, though a summary of facts is not our main
object, it is at least a means to an end, for it is by
dwelling upon these facts, facts which, except for a
few unimportant details, are now thoroughly eluci-
dated, that we shall endeavour to enter into the
thoughts, emotions and aspirations of the saint and
heroine.

At the first sitting^ of the court at the trial which
was to end in her martyrdom, Joan of Arc intro-
duced herself to her judges : In my own country,"
she said, "they used to call me Jeannette; since
my arrival in Prance I have been called Jeanne.
I was bom at Domremy, which makes one along
with Greux ; the principal church is at Greux. My
Other's name is Jacques d'Arc,^ my mother's

^ No evidence was heard during the case for conviction.
« Wednesday, 21st February 1431.

' Some historians erroneously write ''Jeanne Dare " in one word,
so as to confer on Joan a patent of plebeian birth, in which they
make a double mistake. On the one hand, the particle does not
signify nobility, nor its absence plebeian birth ; and on the other

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Isabella;^ I believe myself to be about nineteen
years of age."

The little village of Domremy is divided by a
stream which flows into the Meuse. The part on
the north side of the stream was held directly from
the King of Prance, and was comprised in the
bailiwick of Chaumont-en-Bassigny ; that on the
south was held of the Duke of Bar, a vassal of
the King of France. Just across the Meuse was
Lorraine, an independent country. Joan of Arc was
in no way a native of Lorraine.^ The cottage where
she was born formed part of the direct inheritance
of the King of Prance. It is true that the stream
which separated it from the territory of Bar flows at
the very door of the house,^ but even had she been a
native of Bar (which she was not) this would not
have made her a Lorrainian. Lorraine began at the

hand, the apostrophe was unknown in the fifteenth century, and
" due D'Orleans " was written **duc dorleans" just as ** Jeanne
d' Arc " was written * * Jeanne Dare. " * * Dare, " however, is meaning-
less. The family of Joan's father probably came originally from Arc
in the territory of Bar between Chaumont and Langres. Her father,
Jacques, was bom at Ceffonds near Montierender (Haute Mame).

^ Isabelle Rom^, of Vouthon, near Domremy.

^ See the explicit words of the letter sent to the Duke of Milan by
the Steward of Berry, Percival de Boulainvilliers (2 1st June 1429) ;
He says : — She was bom in a small village of the name of
Domremy, in the bailiwick of Bessigny, on this side of, and not
far from the frontiers of the Kingdom of France, on the banks of
the river Meuse near Lorraine" (Quicherat, Proch de Jeanne
€pArCy vol. V. 1 1 6). That Domremy was later included in Lorraine
matters little. Joan was bom a Frenchwoman, and therefore not
a Lorrainian. Lorraine was territory of the Empire.

' The actual house was rebuilt in 1480 on the site of the one in
which Joan was bora, part of which has survived in the re-
construction.

JOAN OP ARC

neighbouring village of Maxey upon the right bank
of the Meuse, where prayers were said for the
victory of the English and the But^undians. Greux
and Domremy were loyal to the French king.^ The
children of Maxey and those of Greux used to fight
battles among themselves, several of which were
witnessed by Joan, who recalled them to her
memory when speaking to her judges. **l have
seen them come back wounded and covered with
blood," she said. These childish frays, however,
do not seem to have had any great influence upon
the silent, self-centred, and entirely inward and
personal development of her warlike mission and
her patriotism.2

^ With the sole exception of one man, who to Joan's great
indignation belonged to the Buigundian party.

^ We know that Joan obtained from the king the favour of
exempting Domremy and Greux from feudal taxation. The king
could not have exempted from taxes any village which was not
held directly from his crown. Domremy lost this privilege when
Charles IX. ceded the village to the Duke of Lorraine and Bar (25th
Jan. 1 571). It claimed the restoration of this right of exemption,
which was a title of honour as well, when, after the death of
Stanislas, Lorraine became French. The terms of the royal
letter remove all doubts as to the nationality of Joan of Arc :
** Charles, etc., to the bailiff of Chaumont, etc., we desire to
inform you that by the favour and at the request of our well-
beloved Joan the Maid, and for the great, mighty, notable and
profitable services she has rendered and is daily rendering us
for the recovery of our domain, we have granted and do hereby
grant special privileges to the peasants and inhabitants of the town
and village of Greux and Domremy, in the said province of
Chaumont-en-Bassigny, of which the said Joan is a native, that they
be henceforward free, clear and exempt from all taxes, aids, sub-
sidies and subventions levied or to be levied upon the said parish."
The letters were given at Chateau-Thierry, 31st July 1429.

CHILDHOOD

Jacques d'Arc and Isabelle Rom^ were small
farmers owning a cottage and fifty acres of land,
consisting of field, wood, and meadow, which they
cultivated themselves, toiling with their own hands.
They were poor but not needy. Jacques d*Arc held a
position of honour in his little village ; he was styled
doyen, a title which placed him second only to the
mayor and the sheriff. He had three sons, Jacques,
Jean and Pierre, and two daughters, Catherine^
and Joan. The latter, the younger of the two, was
probably born on the 6th of January 14 12.^ She
was baptized in the church at Domremy, and,
according to a custom general at the time, had
four godfathers and four godmothers. She grew
up among rustic pleasures and labours without
receiving any education ; she was never able either
to read or write. She could, however, sew and spin
admirably. "In sewing and spinning,'* she proudly
tells her judges,^ I will match myself against any
woman in Rouen." "In my father's house," she
continues, " I was occupied with household duties, I
did not go into the fields to tend the flocks." She
frequently reverts to this fact,* which I notice
because legend has been apt to represent her as

1 It is believed that this elder sister died before Joan left home
(see St Luce, /eanne d'Arc d Domremy y p. 35). Yet Joan spoke
later to Dunois of a sister who was alive ; see post^ p. 66.

^ Date established upon the evidence of the letter of Boulain-
villiers to the Duke of Milan quoted above.

3 First hearing, 21st Feb. 1431.

* " Did you drive the cattle into the fields ? " — "No, not since
I grew up, and had reached years of discretion. I cannot re-
member now whether I tended them when I was a child " (3rd
hearii^, Quicherat, Prochy etc., vol. i. p. 66).

JOAN OF ARC

a shepherdess, whereas she was in reality more of a
housewife. She received her religious instruction
solely from her mother, from whom she learned her
prayers. She knew Our Father, Hail Mary and the
Creed by heart. Further than that her education did
not go; and in after years the equivocal questions
of her judges upon the " Church Militant " were the
cause of her undoing, for, failing to understand the
meaning of these words, she made two or three
imprudent answers of which an unfair advantage
was taken.

In this simple life her faith and her piety were
remarkable even from childhood. Whatever time
she could spare from her work she spent in church ;
she was constantly seen absorbed in prayer, and the
only fault which her companions could find with her
was that she was too grave and devout. She loved
the sound of the chucch bells, because they were a
call to prayer ; and used to give the bell-ringer little
presents, such as wool from her own sheep, that he
might perform his duties with great regularity. As
charitable as she was pious, she loved the poor
tenderly, and gave as much as she was able to in
alms. Many a time she put some homeless and
wretched creature into her bed and spent the night
upon the hearth. When twelve years old she ceased
to join in the games of the boys and girls of her
own age, and was seen no longer dancing under the
" Fairy Tree." She still followed the happy band of
children to it, but held somewhat aloof, not morosely,
but pensively.

This " Fairy Tree " plays an important part in the

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trial, and nothing could have better suited the per-
fidy of the judges than to have traced Joan's victories
to this suspicious or diabolical source. This, how-
ever, they were unable to do, and it is extraordinary
to note how impossible it was to find the slightest
evidence of superstition in her ignorance.

" Was there not a tree close to your house ? "

** There is a tree called the Ladies* Tree or the
Fairies' Tree, fairly close to Domremy, and I have
heard that people sufiPering from fever drink of the
water to be cured. I have even seen some drink
it but whether they were healed or not I do not know.
It is said also that the sick, as soon as they are able
to leave their beds, go and walk near this tree. I
used to go there sometimes with the other maids
and make wreaths for the image of the Blessed
Virgin Mary of Domremy. And several times I have
heard some old people who were no relations of
mine say that the spot was haunted by fairies. A
woman called Joan, who was my godmother and the
wife of the Mayor of Aubery, went so far as to say
that she had seen the fairies. I do not know
whether this is true or not; but I have never
seen them. I have seen the young girls hang their
garlands on the branches of the tree ; I have hung
them there myself. As soon as I knew that I was
to come to France, I took as little part as possible
in the games and expeditions. I do not know
whether, since reaching years of discretion, I have
danced around the tree. It is quite possible that I
have danced there sometimes with the children, but
1 more often sang than danced. There is a wood

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JOAN OP ARC

called the Oak^ Wood* about half a league away and
visible from die door of my father's house. I have
never heard that it was haunted by fairies. When
I came to seek the king, some people asked me if
there was not a wood called the Oak Wood in my
country, because it was said in ancient prophecies
that from the neighbouriiood of such a wood a
maiden would come who should work miracles, but
I put no faith in that.*'*

She was happy in her father's home, and the calm
of her childhood was only broken by public disasters.
War was everjrwhere. Vaucouleurs, near Dom-
remy, which had remained loyal to the King of
Prance, was completely hemmed in by the Anglo-
Burgundian garrisons which occupied Champagne.
Pavoured by the warlike condition of the country,
brigandage was rampant, and it was not always
easy to know whether one was dealing with the
enemy or with the robbers, so difficult was it to
distinguish between them. In 1425 all the parish
live stock of Greux and Domremy (the principal
wealth of a country where arable land was poor)
was seized by a ringleader called Henri d'Orly who
carried it ofiP as far as Doulevant, twenty leagues
away, where fortunately it was recaptured by the
retainers of the Count of Vaudemont. As a rule,
when Domremy was threatened, men and beasts
took refuge on an island in the Meuse which was
defended by a fortress. But in July 1428 the enemy

1 Bois-Chesnu, the Oak Wood ; not Bois-Chenu, the White
Wood.

* Third hearing, Quicherat, Procis^ etc., vol. i. pp. 67, 68,

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appeared so menacing, that they fled further afield
to Neufchiteau in Lorrainian territory, three
leagues south of Domremy, where Joan spent a
fortnight, lodging with a good woman called La
Rousse. The malice of her enemies subsequently
travestied this hostess as an innkeeper, and they
pretended that Joan had been in her service
for several months or even years. The truth is
that she only spent a fortnight at Neufch^teau,
and was never separated from her family for a
moment.

At this time (July 1428) she was sixteen and a
half years old, and a few weeks had elapsed since
she had disclosed to a small circle of intimates the
secret of her mission, long enshrined in her heart.
It was exactly three years since she had first heard
the mysterious "voice" which for three more years,
until the day of martyrdom, was continually to
whisper in her ear.

It was during the summer of 1425, at mid-day, in
her father's garden, that a voice proceeding from
the right hand side, as if from the vicinity of the
church, had spoken to her. The first time she
heard the voice "she was greatly terrified " {magnum
timorem). At the trial, when questioned about this
first vision, she said, that "she rarely heard the
voice without at the same time seeing a great blaze
of light in the direction from which it came." She
did not however give the details which we find in a
letter written by Percival of Boulainvilliers, Steward
of Berry, to the Duke of Milan, at the time when
Joan of Arc had just arrived at Court. Are these

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JOAN OP ARC

details authentic ? We should prefer to have heard
them from the mouth of Joan herself, hut the witness
is trustworthy and he may have taken them directly
from her. He tells us that she was frolicking in
the meadows with her youthful companions, so
swift and light of foot that to their astounded gaze
it seemed as if she were flying rather than running.
At last she paused breathless, " in an ecstasy, as if
beside herself." At the same instant she heard a
strange voice calling her back to the house, where
her mother had need of her. She walked away
from her companions, but as she drew near the
house she again heard the same voice, and no doubt
it was then that, as she told her judges, she grew
brightened, " But," she hastened to add, " the voice
was kind, the voice came from God. When I had
heard it thrice, I knew full well that it was the voice
of an angel." " Joan, what did this voice tell you
for the salvation of your soul?" — "To walk up-
rightly and to be diligent at church." The voice
did not at first speak to her of her going to Prance
to the succour of King Charles VII. But the third
time she heard it, she knew that it was St Michael
who spoke to her.

Por fifteen years the loyal subjects of King
Charles VII. had looked upon St Michael as
their greatest heavenly protector. The Abbey ^
consecrated to him ** on the margin of the perilous
sea," when besieged by the English, had proved im-
pregnable, and was destined to remain so always ; it
is the only spot of Norman territory which escaped
1 Mont St Michel au P^ril de la mer."

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the yoke of the invader. In June 1425 the English
had even suffered a great naval disaster before
the invincible citadel. The soldiers of Henry VI.
the Usurper, however, occupied St Denis with its
royal orifiamme and tombs and, because they were
master of the walls and the relics they, in their rude
faith, believed that they had also won the saint
himself to their cause. " Has St Denis appeared
to you ? " Cauchon anxiously asked Joan. " Not
that I know of," she replied — an answer which
must have reassured the ally of the English.

Let us clearly understand the circumstances
under which Joan received the revelation of her
voices for the first time. She was thirteen and a
half years old. As yet there had been nothing
to distinguish her from other children of her own
age and station. She merely seems to have been
gentler, more pious and more thoughtful than her
companions; less fond of games and singing and
dancing ; more addicted to prayer and long services
in the church. But apart from this, at the age of
thirteen she seems to have shown no signs of exalta-
tion or mysticism, either religious or patriotic. The
sadness with which the war coloured her childhood
has sometimes been exaggerated. There were many
provinces which suffered far more acutely than this
military frontier of Lorraine, which was compara-
tively exempt, and where the mischief was confined
to bloodless alarms, to the menaces of bands of
plunderers and to hasty flights with the cattle which
they wanted to steal. Probably before her first
action, Joan of Arc had never witnessed the shedding

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JOAN OP ARC

of any French blood save that of the small boys of
Domremy who fought the " Burgundians " of Maxey
with stones. So during the summer of 1425 the
first " voices " broke as a surprise and an awakening
upon the perfect tranquillity of her young soul. It
was the " voices " which gradually created the state
of patriotic exaltation which three years later we see
in Joan of Arc ; not the exaltation which preceded
and, so to speak, called forth the voices. We would
also point out that the voices did not at first speak
to her of her mission, but for a long time confined
themselves to counsels of piety. Then as she grew
older and her mind developed, the mission was
gradually revealed to her. She first thrust it away
from her in anguish, then accepted it, and finally
embraced it with passionate ardour. This growth
and progress of events should be very carefully
remembered. We see that it was the mysterious
revelation, explain it how we may, which gradually
moulded Joan of Arc's soul and will; not in the
least (as many people seem to believe without any
proof, indeed, against all the evidence) her own
inwardly developed and personal exaltation which
invited, called forth, almost forced the revelation.
Indeed the first time she heard the voice she was
greatly terrified, so little had she expected or in-
voked it, so unprepared were her ears and her soul
for the miracle.

St Michael did not appear to her alone but
" surrounded by a host of heavenly angels." " I
saw them," she solemnly told her judges, "with
these very eyes, as well as I see you; and when

CHILDHOOD

they vanished from my sight, I wept and greatly
longed that they would take me with them."^

Joan of Arc never made any definite statement
as to the exact moment when the voice revealed to
her her mission. It seems that the revelation was
made gradually and at various intervals. She was
first told that she must go to Prance to the succour
of the king. " The angel told her of the sorry plight
of the kingdom of France." He also promised other
apparitions, and that St Margaret and St Catherine
would come to comfort and guide her. These saints
indeed hegan to appear and to speak to her. After
the first apparitions, Joan, without having received
any command to do so, made a vow to God to
remain a virgin.

The secret of the "voices" she disclosed to no
one, not even to her father, her mother or her
confessor.^ She kept it in her heart, a secret
between God and herself. This absolute silence,
maintained during three years by so young a child,
testifies to a nature of singular strength, thought-
fulness and self-control. In May 1428, however,
towards Ascension-tide, the voices became more
urgent and bade her proceed to Vaucouleurs where

1 Fourth hearing, Quicherat, Proch^ etc., vol. i. p. 73.

^ To this she bears positive testimony (Examination on the
1 2th March in the prison, Quicherat, Proch^ vol. i. p. 128).
''Asked if she had spoken of her alleged visions to her priest or
to any other churchman, she replied that she had not, but only
to Robert de Baudricourt and to the king. She said further that
her voices did not compel her to secrecy, but that she was very
frightened of revealing them for fear of the Burgundians, who
would stop her journey ; and especially she greatly feared her
father who would have opposed her departure.

JOAN OP ARC

Robert de Baudricourt was in command for the
King of Prance. This man was a brave and loyBl
soldier, but rich and dissolute, an intriguer and a
sceptic, and seemed the last man to believe in the
warlike mission of a girl of sixteen. Nor did he
believe in it when Joan of Arc's uncle, Durand
Laxard,^ yielding to his niece's entreaties, brought
her to him secretly, and timidly spoke of her wish
to go to the assistance of the king. Robert took
the man for a fool and the girl for an adventuress,
and would not have hesitated to treat her, or allow
her to be treated with scant respect had there not
always been a certain dignity and reserve about
Joan which intimidated and disconcerted the coarsest
and most daring. He gave her back to Durand,
saying : " Take her home to her father, and give her
a good whipping." This humiliating episode did not
discourage Joan. A few days later, on St John's
eve (2drd June 1428) she said to a husbandman,
one Michel Lebuin: "Between Coussey and Vau-
couleurs there is a maiden who before a year is
past will bring about the coronation of the King
of Prance."

Some rumour of this unsuccessful attempt must
have reached Domremy, for towards the end of the
year 1428, Joan's father dreamt that he saw her
escaping with some soldiers. He said to his sons :
"If that should happen, drown her, or I will drown
her with my own hands." ^

1 She called him her uncle although he was only the husband
of a first cousin older than herself.
^ In order to keep her at home, her parents probably tried to

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CHILDHOOD

Meanwhile Orleans had been invested since the
12th October (1428), and the complete defeat of
the French king seemed imminent. Becoming
more and more frequent, the voices spoke to Joan
several times a week urging, commanding, almost
threatening. She tried to struggle against the
divine command, saying to the voices : " I am a
poor girl; I do not know how to ride or fight."
Was it really God who was sending her ? "I
would rather be drawn and quartered than go to
Prance against God's will." But the voice replied :

It is the will of God ; it is God who commands it."
Finally, unable any longer to resist, Joan sorrowfully
but resolutely decided to leave home without a word
of warning to her family, and without bidding them
good-bye. Once more the worthy Durand proved
her protector in this cruel step. His wife was
about to be confined, and he came to fetch Joan
under the pretext of asking her to assist in nurs-
ing the sick woman. She left Domremy early in
January 1429, never to return. When leaving the
village she met one of her little friends, Mengette
by name, and greeted her, recommending her to
God. But she said nothing to her parents or to her
other girl friend Hauviette, who, at the case for re-
habilitation twenty-seven years later, testified to the
tears she had shed on hearing of Joan's departure.^

marry her. A young man summoned her before the ecclesiastical
judge of Toul, alleging that she had promised to marry him.
Joan had no difficulty in proving that he lied, and with that the
matter ended.

1 A short time before her departure she had said to Gerard
d'£pinal, the only person in Domremy who belonged to the

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JOAN OP ARC

Neither her father nor her mother appears to have
taken any steps towards recalling her when they
subsequently heard that she was on her way to
Chinon. Were they beginning to believe in her
mission? Or were they indignant at her secret
flight and resolved to abandon her to her fate?
The second theory is the more probable, for they
did not come to Vaucouleurs to take leave of her
and give her their blessing. At Rouen when her
judges reproached her with her conduct towards her
father and mother, she answered : " It had to be.
Since that time I have had letters written to them,
and they have forgiven me. Had I had a hundred
fathers and a hundred mothers, had I been a king's
daughter, I should have gone. . .

At Vaucouleurs Durand found lodgings for her
with some worthy people,^ Henri and Catherine
Leroyer, who seem to have been the first to be-
lieve firmly in her. Her ardour and her faith,
however, soon proved contagious, and a small circle
of followers formed itself in Vaucouleurs. Jean
Nouillonpont,^ one of the men-at-arms who were
afterwards to take her to Chinon, saw her during
this painful period of suspense in Henri Leroyer's

Burgundian party, "Friend, if you were not a Burgundian I
would tell you something." He saw her again six months later
at Chdlons when she spoke these strange words to him : " I fear
naught but treachery.'*

* He himself stayed at Burey near Vaucouleurs ; probably Joan
wished to stay in the town itself, so as to allow Baudricourt no
respite.

^ Also called John of Metz. In March 144 1 a title of nobility
was conferred upon him for his services to the royal cause.

CHILDHOOD

house. He gave evidence of this at the case for
rehabilitation. She was dressed in a wretched red
gown. " My friend," he said to her, " what are you
going to do? Must the king be driven from his
own kingdom, and must we become English ? *'

" I have come here," answered Joan, " to the king's
chamber ^ to persuade Robert of Baudricourt to take
me, or order me to be taken to the king. He pays
no heed either to me or to my words; and yet I
must reach the king before the middle of Lent,
though I wear my feet to the knees. For no one in
the world, neither kings nor dukes, nor the daughter
of the king of Scotland,^ nor any other can save the
kingdom of France ; there is no help save in me. I
would much rather have stayed spinning beside my
poor mother, for this is not my profession (fighting) ;
but I must go and I shall go, because it is my Lord's
wish." " Who is your Lord ? " " My Lord is God."

Then Jean de Nouillonpont, taking Joan's hand
in his own, promised her that with the help of God
he would lead her to the king. '*When will you
start? Rather now than to-morrow; rather to-
morrow than later."

She had seen Robert Baudricourt several times.
Nothing was easier than to meet the Governor in
this little town, and doubtless she took pains to

^ That is, to a town held directly of the king.

^ She was speaking in February 1429. The preliminary
negotiations for the marriage of the dauphin (the future Louis
XI., then aged six) with Margaret of Scotland, aged five,
were not made before July 1428. It is remarkable that news
of them should have already penetrated to the frontiers of
Lorraine.

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place herself daily upon his path. At first he
persisted in his incredulous and mocking attitude ;
but as day by day the political and military situation
of Charles VII. became more critical, Baudricourt,
despairing of any human assistance, grew less brutal
in his refusals to listen to this girl who offered him
supernatural aid. He fully realised that there was
something strange about her ; but the question was
whether she was sent by God, or by the devil. He
broke in suddenly one day upon the Leroyer house-
hold, accompanied by the priest, Jean Poumier,
wearing his stole, who on perceiving Joan thus
adjured her: ** If thou be evil, stand back and depart
from hence ; if thou be good, draw near.*' Sinking
upon her knees at the priest's feet, Joan answered
him : " Have you not heard me in confession ? "
Then turning to Baudricourt, she continued : I tell
you that I must go and find the dauphin. Have you
never heard that it has been prophesied that Prance
should be lost through a woman,^ and afterwards
restored by a virgin from the borders of Lorraine ? "
" Time hangs as heavy with me as with a woman who
draws near her time," she said to her hostess. " I
shall go, if I have to travel upon my knees." She
spent the whole day praying in the Castle chapel,
prostrate, broken and in tears, imploring God to
soften the heart of Baudricourt.

The news of her presence in Vaucouleurs began
to spread abroad and arouse the public curiosity.
Two great personages, the old Duke of Lorraine,
Charles II., the Bold, and his son-in-law, Ren^ of
^ An allusion to Isabella of Bavaria.

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CHILDHOOD

Ai^'oUr Duke of Bar,^ expressed a desire to see her.
She was escorted to Nancy hy Durand Laxard, and
made a pilgrimage to St-Nicholas-du-Port. The
duke was ill, and asked Joan for a remedy. Douht-
less she told him that her mission was quite a
different one. Charles dismissed her, making her a
present of a horse which presumably he had not
chosen from amongst the best in his stables, for a
few days later the duke's horse was found incapable
of carrying Joan to Chinon.

She returned to Vaucouleurs on Sunday the 13th
February. On Thursday the 17th, she announced
to Baudricourt another defeat of the King of France,
at what was called the battle of the Herrings, fought
and lost on the previous Saturday outside Orleans.
Baudricourt received confirmation of the news in
a few days and no doubt was immensely impressed.
Prom that moment he was mollified, if not con-
vinced, and once having come to a decision he
pushed matters forward.^

Some of the people of Vaucouleurs, at Joan's
express desire, had joined together to have a man's

1 Although a brother-in-law of Charles VII., he inclined
towards the English party ; a few weeks later he acknowledged
Henry VI., and signed a treaty of alliance with the English king
(6th May 14*9), two days before the relief of Orleans.

3 It has been conjectured that he sounded the wishes of the king
and the opinion of the court, and that the result was favourable
to Joan of Arc. Among her travelling companions we shall see
a certain Colet de Vienne, Kin^s Messenger, Had he been sent
secretly from Chinon to fetch her ? What makes this improbable
is that at the case for rehabilitation, John de Nouillonpont
declared that he and Bertram de Poulangy had defrayed the
travelling expenses for which, moreover, he was reimbursed.

JOAN OF ARC

costume made for her consisting of a doublet,^ a
pair of long hose, a tunic reaching to the knee, and
a pair of high gaiters. A horse costing sixteen
francs was bought for her, and three men-at-arms
volunteered to accompany her, each taking a servant.
These were Colet de Vienne, "royal messenger,"
and his servant Richard the Archer, Bertrand de
Poulangy and his servant Julien de Honnecourt,
and Jean de Nouillonpont (also called Jean de Metz)
and his servant, Jean de Honnecourt or Dieuleward.
The little band, numbering seven souls, set forth
from Vaucouleurs on the evening of Wednesday
the 23rd February 1429. Baudricourt's last words
to Joan on taking leave of her were "Go then,
whatever may betide I "

^ The jerkin or doublet and the hat were black ; the tunic or
short skirt was grey. The costume is exactly described (as far
as we can tell) by the chronicler called the " Recorder of la
RocheUe."

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CHAPTER II

CHINON

'O avoid any risk of meeting either the English

* or the Burgundians, by whom the roads were
infested, they travelled as much as possible at night.
They were eleven days on the road from Vaucouleurs
to Chinon, passing by the abbey of St-Urbain,
Auxerre, Gien, and Sainte - Catherine -de-Pierbois.
The other points of their itinerary are not known to
us. Brave as they were, the men could not conceal
their anxiety ; but they were reassured by Joan of
Arc, who said to them from time to time: '*Pear
nothing, for I am commanded to do this ; my
brothers in Paradise tell me everything I must do.
It is four or five years since my brothers in Paradise
and my Lord told me that I must go to the wars
to win back the kingdom of Prance." ^

At night she slept fully dressed among her escort,
none of whom, as they testified upon oath, ever
dared form even a thought injurious to her innocence,
so great a feeling of respect did she inspire, a feeling
which seemed to surround and protect her till her
death. She herself would have liked to attend
Mass every day during the journey, but from

1 To be exact it was three years and eight months, from the
summer of 1425 to February 1429.

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JOAN OF ARC

motives of prudence and fearing to show themselves
too frequently, they heard it but twice.^ She amazed
her companions by her piety and gentleness, her
faith and enthusiasm. One of them, Bertrand de
Poulangy, a witness at the trial, brought his evidence
to a close with these words : " To me she seemed as
good as if she were a saint 1 " When they reached Ste-
Catherine-de-Pierbois in Touraine, which was friendly
territory, she indulged herself in the joy of hearing
three masses in succession. Prom there she caused
a letter to be written to the king announcing her
approach. Joan's arrival was most opportune.
The kingdom was in dire extremities ; there was not
another crown in the treasury wherewith to pay the
few remaining soldiers. Orleans could not hold out
more than a few days longer, and once the town
had fallen, where could refuge be sought ? In the
Dauphin^, perhaps, or even abroad, in Spain, or in
Scotland, but the outlook was a desperate one.

The little band entered Chinon on the 6th
March 1429. Although Joan's arrival had been
announced and was expected, it seems that those in
whose power the king was, especially La Tr^moille,
the favourite minister, had not yet decided to allow
him to see her. She was kept waiting for two days
before she was at last admitted into the presence
of Charles VII.2 We know how the king, in order
to test her, hid himself among the courtiers of
his own age, taking care not to be distinguished

* Probably at St-Urbain, where she stayed at the Abbey, and
certainly at Auxerre, where she heard Mass at the Cathedral.
^ Evidence of Simon Charles, president of the Court of Accounts.

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CHINON

by his dress. Yet Joan, who had never seen him,
recognised him, and walked straight towards him;
then falling upon her knees, she said : " God grant
you long life, noble King I " Charles pretended to
undeceive her : " I am not the King," he said. " In
the name of God, Sire, you are the King and none
other." She then demanded troops with which to
raise the siege of Orleans and escort the king to
Rheims, where he would be crowned. For it was
the will of God that the English should be driven
from Prance, and that the kingdom should remain in
the hands of its rightful king.

This first interview produced little effect. The
prejudice against Joan was general. The king,
although affable, remained suspicious, his opinions
being unfavourably affected by La Tr^moille, whose
influence was all powerful at the time. While
priests were despatched to Domremy to make
enquiries about Joan, she herself was questioned
and closely examined at Chinon by every variety
of person, both ecclesiastics and laymen. The
frivolous and corrupt court was little inclined to
believe in divine intervention. Some pronounced
it to be a " farce " ; others, less sceptical, but none
the less prejudiced, feared it was some wile of
the devil.

Joan was in despair at not being believed. The
danger was increasing. If they refused to obey
God and take her to Orleans the town might fall
at any moment. " Noble Dauphin," she said to
Charles VII., "why do you not believe me? I tell
you that God has pity upon your kingdom and upon

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JOAN OF ARC

your people. For St Louis and St Charlemagne are
kneeling before Him, praying for you, and if you
will allow me I will tell you something which will
bring you to realise that you must believe in me."*
At last one day she took courage and revealed to
him a secret which he thought was unknown to any-
one but himself, and the king was amazed and
believed in her.

What was this secret ? At the trial Joan con-
sistently refused to explain it, though she thereby
ran the risk of irritating, and did in fact irritate
her judges, whose curiosity she succeeded in baffling.
The general belief, expressed in writing as early as
the time of Louis XIL and in all probability well-
founded, has been that this " Secret of the King "
related to the legitimacy of his birth.* The story
ran that upon All Saints' Day, a few months before
the arrival of Joan of Arc, the son of Isabella of
Bavaria, troubled and discouraged by the endless
series of reverses and disasters by which he was
incessantly overwhelmed in his struggle against the
English Usurper, asked himself with anguish whether
he were indeed the legitimate heir to the crown of
France, imploring God, if he were not, to remove
from his heart the desire to conquer it. This scene
had passed unwitnessed. Joan described it to the
king and reassured him, convincing him of the just-
ness of his claim.

^ Chrmique de la Pucelle (a compilation drawn up about 1470
from good sources).

^ Abr&Diateur du Prods^ p. 254 (an anonymous work compiled
about 1500 from authentic sources).

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CHINON

The king was now converted, but not the court.
Indeed, it never was quite converted, even in the
days of the most glorious triumphs. For the
dispelling of all doubts and the removal of all
scruples, the king desired Joan to be solemnly
interviewed by several bishops, by the members of
his Parliament, and by those doctors of the Uni-
versity of Paris who had remained loyal to him.

From Chinon she was taken to Poitiers, where
these learned men were sitting. She was installed
in the house of Jean Rabateau, Solicitor-General
to the Parliament, and hither came the examiners,
as keen as if they had been judges to try her. A
certain Carmelite friar, a doctor of divinity and a
" very harsh man," ^ said to her : " It is forbidden in
the Scriptures to believe in such words unless a
• sign ' (miracle) be shown." " I do not wish to
tempt God," she answered boldly. "The 'sign'
which God has appointed for me is to raise the siege
of Orleans and to lead the king to be crowned at
Rheims. Go thither and you will see." Guillaume
Aymery, another doctor of divinity, one of the
preaching friars, said to her: "Joan, you ask for
men-at-arms, and you say that it is God's will that
the English depart out of the kingdom of France
and return to their own country. If this be so, then
is there no need of men-at-arms, for the will of God
is sufficient in itself to defeat them and send them
home." "I ask for men-at-arms," she answered,
" but a small number will suffice. They will fight ;
God will give victory."

* Chronique de la Pucelle,

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JOAN OF ARC

Frank, simple and fearless, she had an answer for
everything, providing that she understood what was
being said to her ; but when they tried to puzzle her
with intricate questions, the scope and meaning of
which she could not fully grasp, she quickly evaded
them, saying : " I do not know my letters. I am sent
by the King of Heaven to raise the siege of Orleans
and to conduct the King to Rheims, where he will be
crowned and anointed." ^

The Dominican friar Seguin, who had inherited the
accents of his native province of Limousin, said to
her : " In what language did the voice which you
profess to have heard speak to you ? " " In a better
one than yours," she slyly answered. Seeing them
still suspicious and unmoved she passionately re-
iterated : " Give me soldiers, as few as you like I "

The examination, of which unfortunately all the
documents ^ have been lost^ lasted for three weeks.
When the theologians had finished, the members of
Parliament wished in their turn to question her, and,
perhaps because they were less interested in assur-
ing themselves that the spirit by which she was
actuated was not an evil one, they seem to have
been more easily won by her simplicity, good &ith

^ Evidence of Gobert Thibault, Squire.

2 The loss of the official reports of the examination conducted
at Poitiers can never be sufficiently deplored. In her trial Joan
continually referred to them, and most justly opposed this first
sentence of the Church, gainst the one with which she was then
threatened. This unfortunate hiatus in the history of her life leaves
us in almost complete ignorance of her childhood. The minutes
of the proceedings at Poitiers were not quoted in the case for
rehabilitation, and must then have been already lost.

CHINON

and enthusiasm. After them all the women and
maidens of Poitiers came to interview her, and to
all of these she spoke so graciously that she reduced
them to tears. They expressed astonishment, how-
ever, at seeing her dressed like a man. I fully
understand," she said to them, " that it must seem
strange to you, and rightly so; but, since I must
fight for the noble Dauphin, I must assume the
apparel suitable for a soldier; and when I find
myself among the troops if I am dressed as a man,
they will forget that I am a woman ; and so it seems
to me that I shall the better preserve my virginity of
thought and deed.*'

The pertinacity with which Joan clung to her
masculine attire so long as she was obliged to live
among men, either as a soldier or as a prisoner, is
explained beforehand in this answer, and it is un-
necessary to seek any other motive for it. She
knew that war is not a woman's business, and
therefore, out of respect for her sex, she wished to
lay aside woman's garments when she felt compelled
to fight in obedience to the will of God. This girl
of seventeen, alone and defenceless among rough
soldiers, ended in attaching a certain mystic virtue
to the manly garb which was her protection. So
long as she wore it she felt that with her sex thus
disguised, her modesty would be in no danger.

The ardour of her foith seems ultimately to have
softened the hearts of the inquisitors. The verdict
of the wise men of Poitiers was favourable to Joan
of Arc ; without vouching for the miraculous nature
of her mission, or rather, putting this character of

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JOAN OF ARC

it on one side (Joan herself only professed to perform
marvels not miracles), the learned men advised the
king to make a prudent use of the assistance which
God might perhaps be sending him through the
medium of this young girl, in whom they had been
able to detect no evil. ''In view of his own necessity
and that of his kingdom, and considering the constant
prayers of his poor people to God, and for the sake
of all those who loved peace and justice, the king
should not reject or thwart the Maid, who says she
is sent by God to his assistance, notwithstanding
that her promises be only human deeds. Nor should
he believe lightly in her and at times only, but follow-
ing the Holy Scripture, should test her in two ways
(by human prudence and devout prayer) " ^

Her stay in Poitiers was long remembered in
the town. Jean Bouchet, the author of Annales
d^Aquitainet relates that in 1495 he conversed in
Poitiers with an old man, Christophe de Peyrat,
nearly a hundred years old, who showed him the
house where Joan had stopped and told him that he
had seen her '' mount her horse entirely clad in

^ It should be observed that these doctors of Poitiers who
examined Joan of Arc and passed favourable sentence upon her
before any miraculous event had supported the fact of her mission,
were ecclesiastical personages of great distinction, theologians
fully as well qualified as those who afterwards condemned her :
Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Rheims ; Bishop Pierre of
Versailles (afterwards of Meaux) ; Gerard Machet, Confessor to
the king ; Pierre Seguin, a Carmelite ; Guillaume Segnin and
Guillaume Aymery, Dominicans ; Jean RafFanel, a Franciscan ;
Jean de Micon, a Doctor of Orleans ; Hugues Comparelli, Bishop
of Poitiers. Most of these learned doctors belonged to the dis-
sentient party in the University of Paris.

CHINON

white armour'* to go to Orleans. He even pointed
out, at the corner of the rue St Btienne, a stone
which she had used in mounting.

Joan returned to Chinon towards the middle of
April.i The king was convinced, or at least had
made up his mind to try the experiment; and his
council too had reluctantly given in. Neither La
Tremoille nor the Archbishop of Rheims, Regnault de
Chartres, ever believed in Joan of Arc. Everywhere
we can see traces of the opposition which they and
many others offered to the plans of the Maid.
SufiBce it to say that the opinion of those who
looked upon her mission" as a cunning trick
devised by schemers, is in absolute contradiction to
established facts, though it was held by many people
at the time. But contemporaries do not know
everything, and at Charles VII.'s court especially,
policy was discreet and hatred silent. It will soon
become only too apparent that Joan of Arc was
never able to disarm the hatred, jealousy and
suspicions of many members of her own party.
The only people who sincerely believed in her were
a few leaders such as the Duke of Alen9on, La
Hire, Dunois and Poton de Xaintrailles, and even

^ The reader should remember that on the 13th April 1429,
Ren6 of Anjou, Duke of Bar (brother-in-law of Charles VII.) did
homage for his duchy of Bar to the Duke of Bedford, Regent. If
Joan had been a native of Bar, Ren6 would have been her lawful
sovereign, and she, by serving Charles VII., would have been in
open revolt against him, for Ren6 had joined the side of Henry VI. ,
with whom he signed a treaty of alliance on the 6th May 1429,
two days before the relief of Orleans 1 But Joan was a native of
Champagne and belongs to France.

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JOAN OF ARC

in their case one would not like to say that their
faith survived defeat.

While the army was heing made ready, Joan was
sent to Tours, and the king appointed a few men-at-
arms as a bodyguard for her. Two of her brothers,
Jean and Pierre, had joined her, and she kept Jean
de Metz and Bertram de Poulangy with her. A
brave knight, one Jean d'Aulon, was her steward;
Louis de Contes, a youth of fifteen, her page ; and
Jean Pasquerel, an Austin friar, her chaplain and
confessor-in-ordinary.

Much of the evidence collected at the case for
rehabilitation was that of priests or monks to whom
Joan had confessed on one or upon several occasions.
They one and all agree in extolling her humility and
devoutness, and the faith and ardour which she
showed in attending very frequently the sacraments
of Penance and the Eucharist. Yet none of them
seems to have exercised any lasting and personal
influence over her, and although she had many con-
fessors she had no spiritual director. Jean Pas-
querel, who was her chaplain from her arrival in
Chinon until her imprisonment, confessed her more
frequently than anyone else, "almost daily" he
asserted in his evidence, with no doubt some slight
exaggeration; and he marvelled at the tears of
contrition she shed while confessing. But many
other priests also confessed her while this monk was
attached to her person, yet neither he nor any of
them seems ever to have become her director.

Having given her a faithful and suitable escort the
king wished to equip her for war, and presented her

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with a horse and a suit of armour. But she refused
the sword he offered her, and requested that some-
one should be sent to the Chapel of St Catherine-en-
Pierbois to unearth an ancient sword which was
buried there behind the altar, covered with rust and
marked with five crosses. No one knew of the exist-
ence of this sword, which was found in the very spot
indicated to Joan by her voices. It was polished to
look like new and brought to her. This marvellous
discovery created a great stir.^

In the same manner Joan ordered the design of
her standard, which she commanded to be made of
linen embroidered in silk, entirely white and decorated
with fieurs de lis. On one side, underneath the in-
scription JBSUS, MARIA, was represented the image
of God the Father seated upon the clouds, holding
in His hand the terrestrial globe ; also two kneeling
angels presenting Him with a fleur de lis. On the
other side were the arms of France upheld by two
angels. Besides the standard, she caused to be

1 Joan herself spoke to her judges of the sword of St Catherine :
" When asked how she knew that the sword was in that particular
spot, she replied that the sword was buried in the earth, covered
with rust and marked with five crosses. Her voices had told her
that it was there ; she had never seen the man who went in search
of the said sword, but she had written to the clergy in the neigh-
bourhood asking them if they would allow her to have this sword.
They sent it to her. It seemed to her that the sword was not
very deeply buried behind the altar ; she could no longer however
say if it had lain behind or before the altar ; but she thought that
at the time she had written that the sword was behind the altar.
When it was found the clergy of the neighbourhood polished it,
whereupon the rust fell from it quite easily." — Quicherat, Prods t
etc., vol. i. p. 76.

JOAN OF ARC

made for herself a pennon upon which was depicted
the Annunciation.

The news of her return to Chinon and of her
impending departure for Orleans began to spread
afar. From a well-authenticated piece of evidence,
well worthy of attention, we know that as early as
the middle of April Joan and her mission began to
excite much interest, even far away from the seat
of war and from Charles VII.; at Lyons, for ex-
ample, and Brussels.^ A letter written from Lyons
on the 22nd April certifies that the Maid is with
the king and has said to him : " I shall save Orleans,
I shall put the English who are besieging it to flight.
In the battle I shall myself be wounded before the
town by a shaft, but I shall not die of it ; and the
king will be crowned in Rheims this coming summer.'*
All these predictions were confirmed by events.
This letter, be it noted, was received at Brussels
and recorded with its date (prior to the events
predicted), by the registrar of the Brabant Court of
Accounts.

' Orleans meanwhile was being daily more closely
invested by the English, and the siege seemed on
the point of becoming a blockade. Moreover, since
even Joan, although assuring them of victory, could

^ See Proch, ^it. Quicherat, vol. iv. p. 425. Morosini's
Chronique testifies that at the same period Joan and her mission
were being discussed with the liveliest curiosity at Bruges, Venice,
and several other places. Everyone, of course, according to his
opinion, spoke of her differently. One Justiani wrote to Venice
from Bruges: ''Each one adjusts and harmonises her exploits
with his own belief or disbelief in her, magnifying or detracting
from them according to his fancy."

CHINON

not tell how long it might be necessary to fight
before attaining it, it became apparent to everyone
that the most urgent step was to revictual the town.
Accordingly a large convoy of provisions was collected
at Blois, and a small army commanded by Marshal
de Boussac and Gilles de Rais and led by Joan of
Arc, was directed to force an entry for it into
Orleans. The number of these troops is unknown ;
or rather it should be said that the estimates are
contradictory, varying from three to twelve thousand.

Before beginning the campaign, Joan, wishing for
the last time to call upon the English to retire in
peace, sent them this message: —

Jhesus. Maria. 1 King of England, render satisfaction to the
King of Heaven. Give up to the Maid the keys of all the good
towns which you have seized. She has been sent by God to
restore the royal blood, but is full ready to make peace if you will
make reparation by restoring (France) and pa3nng an indemnity
for having held it. King of England, if you will not do this, I
am leader in the war ; wheresoever I find your people in France,
if they be not willing to obey I will drive them forth willing or
no ; but if they submit, I will have mercy upon them. Know,
that should they refuse to obey, the Maid has come to slay them.
She comes from the King of Heaven to put you out of France,
man by man ; and the Maid promises and assures you that
she will sound so great a call to arms as for a thousand years

^ Joan did not actually write this letter, since she was unable
to write ; but it is quite likely that she dictated it, for the style
in which it is written is totally unlike the official style of those
about her. We have published the text given in the manuscript
of the Geste aes Nobles^ and have merely modernised the spelling.
That text appears to be the oldest of those which have come into
our hands, but several texts ot the letter exist. Quicherat
published five. {Prods, etc., vol. i. p. 240; iv. 139, 215, 396;
V. 96.) The discrepancies between them are trifling.

JOAN OP ARC

has not been heard in France, if you do not render her justice.
And be very sure of this, that the King of Heaven will send her
greater power than you can wield in all your assaults upon her
and her trusty men-at-arms.

And you, archers, noble and valiant soldiers, who are before
Orleans, go home to your own country, as God bids you. And
if you will not do this, beware of the Maid and remember the
wrongs you have committed. Think not that the right is on
your side, for you never will hold France from the King of
Heaven, the Son of Mary ; but the King Charles shall hold it,
the true heir to whom God gave it, and he will enter Paris in
goodly company. If you do not believe the messages of God and
of the Maid of Orleans, in whatsoever place we find you we will
strike a mighty blow and we shall see whose is the better right,
yours or God's.

William Pole, Earl of Suffolk, John, Lord Talbot and Thomas,
Lord Scales, lieutenants of the Duke of Bedford, so-called Regent
of the Kingdom of France for the King of England, make
answer, whether you will make peace with the City of Orleans.
If not, you will shortly have cause to remember your wrongful
deeds. Duke of Bedford, who call yourself regent of France for
the King of England, the Maid begs and entreats you not to bring
destruction upon your heads. If you do not give her satisfaction she
will cause the French to do the greatest deed that was ever done
in all Christendom.

Written the Tuesday in Holy Week,i to the Duke of Bedford,
so-called regent of the kingdom of 'France for the King of
England.

This letter written upon the "Tuesday in Holy
Week," that is to say Holy Tuesday, if not anti-
dated, must therefore have been composed on the
22nd March 1429. It was no doubt dictated by
Joan at Poitiers, possibly in the presence of the
examiners, or at any rate, to be shown to them.
At all events it was despatched before the middle of
April. As may easily be imagined, it only succeeded

1 Holy Tuesday, 22nd March 1429.

CHINON

in infuriating the English who threatened to bum
the messenger who delivered it.^ And yet we cannot
help admiring Joan for having made this fruitless
effort. After fifteen years of open war an ordinary
commander might well have been justified in attack-
ing at once, but Joan, who professed to be sent by God,
not to make conquests, or to win glory, but to see a
just cause righted, was acting more in accordance
with the character of her mission by making a final
effort to accomplish it without bloodshed. Though
there was no hope of success, it was at least her
duty to make the attempt. It was necessary that
her impatience for action, which was not impatience
for fighting, should not be misinterpreted either by
friend or foe. Until the last she persisted in offering
peace before having recourse to war, and, after
victory, in asking no more than she had asked before.
A soldier of justice, she only demands justice, and
when justice is done, she will always be ready to lay
down her sword. She never threatened the English
with revenge or retaliation, she never said to them :
"We will pursue you to your island and avenge
conquered Prance by conquering you once more."
No such words ever passed her lips ; her only plea
was: "Give back to France that which you took
unlawfully and hold unjustly."

1 They also threatened to bum the girl who had written it
From the first time they saw her they vowed against her the most
fearful hatred. Joan was not disturbed. " Let them bum me if
they capture me," said she, " but if I defeat them, let them go
away."

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CHAPTER III

ORLEANS

npHBY set out from Blois on Thursday, the 28th

* April to march to Orleans, Joan of Arc
riding at the head of the army, surrounded by
priests chanting the Vent Creator. Joan wished to
follow boldly the right bank of the Loire, although
it was strongly occupied by the English. "They
will not stir," said she. But the generals, who did
not share her confidence, chose the left side of the
river which was freer of the enemy. Two leagues
up the river they came to Ch^cy. Dunois, the
Bastard of Orleans,^ commanded the town ^ in the
name of his brother, Charles of Orleans, who had
been a prisoner since Agincourt.

Dunois came to meet the convoy and saw Joan of
Arc for the first time.*

"You are the Bastard of Orleans?** she said
to him.

" Yes, and I rejoice at your arrival."
" Then it was you who counselled that I should
come hither by this side of the river instead of

1 He only received the title of Comte de Dunois in 1439, but we
shall generally call him by the name under which he is so famous.

* The Governor was Raoul de Gaucourt.

' Evidence of Dunois. Chrmique de la PucelU,
36

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ORLEANS

going straight on through the district occupied by
Talbot and the English."

Dunois tried to excuse himself. " It was my
advice and that of the wisest men; we thought it
the best and safest course."

" In the name of God," she replied, "Our Lord's
counsels are wiser and safer than yours, you thought
to deceive me, but you deceive yourself. For I bring
the greatest succour that ever came to knight or
town, the succour of the King of Heaven. It comes
not from me but from God Himself, who at the
entreaty of St Louis and St Charlemagne has
taken pity upon the town of Orleans."

The provisions were shipped upon some boats
which had been sent from Orleans,, and the whole
convoy, having descended the river without any
accident, was landed at the entrance of the town.
The English had not stirred. A lack of transport,
however, prevented the French army from following
the same route, so it was decided to return to Blois,
recross the Loire, and approach Orleans from the
north, and the right hand bank of the river. Joan
agreed with Dunois in not wishing to go far away
from the town where she was already awaited with
passionate expectation. Accordingly, accompanied
by a small escort they crossed the Loire behind the
convoy of provisions, and landed at the eastern point
of the besieged town.

On the 30th April, at eight o'clock in the even-
ing, clad in full armour and mounted upon a white
horse, Joan entered Orleans by torchlight. Before
her was borne her standard "likewise white, with

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JOAN OP ARC

two angels upon it, each holding a fleur-de-lis in
his hand; and on the pennon was depicted the
Annunciation." The Bastard of Orleans rode on
her right hand. Her reception was triumphal.
Burghers and soldiers "already felt encouraged
and as if no longer besieged." Everyone gazed
at her with feelings of love and confidence; they
crowded so about her, that a torch set fire to her
pennon, which she immediately and with great self-
possession extinguished herself. After they had
been to the Cathedral to return thanks to the
Almighty, they led her to the house of Jacques
Boucher, treasurer to the Duke of Orleans, where
she was to stay. With her were her two brothers,
Pierre and Jean, and the two men-at-arms, Jean de
Metz, and Bertrand de Poulangy, who had escorted
her from Vaucouleurs.

As she had spent the entire day on horseback
without once dismounting, and without food or drink,
a supper had been prepared for her ; this, however,
she did not touch, merely eating five or six pieces of
bread, which she soaked in a glass of wine diluted
with water. Her abstinence seemed as wonderful
as her endurance. Louis de Contes, her page,
mentions that it was a frequent occurrence for her
to spend an entire day without eating anything but
a bit of bread. That night she made the daughter
of her host sleep in her bed. Throughout the whole
campaign she always tried to have a woman in her
room at night. When this was impossible, she slept
fully dressed.

It seems incomprehensible that the English should

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ORLEANS

have allowed Orleans to be reprovisioned in this
way, without making any effort to prevent it. They
must already have been disturbed, if not alarmed,
by the accounts which had reached them of the
Maid's supernatural powers. At all events, it is a
fact that from the moment Joan came among them,
the inhabituits of the beleaguered town proved them-
selves to be different men. Dunois affirms as much
in his evidence. " The day before her arrival, two
Bnglishmer. would have put eight Frenchmen of the
royal army to flight, but as soon as she had entered
the town, bur or five hundred of our men would
have held tieir own against the entire English army
(about ten thousand men)." The very next day, the
besiegers cffered no more resistance to the entry of
the reinforcements sent from Gien and Montargis
than they had to that of the provisions on the
previous dsy. Unmoved they watched the passage
of Joan's Lttle army which Dunois went to meet on
the road fr«m Blois. The rdles were changed ; the
besiegers vere becoming the besieged; and the
defenders cf Orleans proceeded to take, one by one,
the formidible fortresses which for seven months,
the Englisa had been building and fortifying round
their walk

The fifst of these fortresses to be attacked
was that of St Loup, which commanded the upper
reach of the river. The attack took place on the
aftemooi of Wednesday, the 4th May. Joan, who
had not been told of it, was resting upon her bed
and had even fallen asleep. Suddenly, she awoke and
said toAulon, her steward, " I must go and fight the

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JOAN OP ARC

English." At the same moment, a great uproar
filled the town, and Joan found that they were
fighting without having called her. She hastily
armed herself, chiding her page ^ for having allowed
her to sleep. "Wretched boy (Sanglait gargon),^
not to tell me that the blood of France was
being shedl" It was probably on this same day
that she said to Jean d'Aulon : " Never iave I seen
the blood of any Frenchman flow that ny hair has
not risen upon my head ! "

May it be forgiven her by the wise fok of a later
generation if the sons of her mother couitry seemed
to her more precious than the sons oi strangers.
But she was merciful to all, and the falen foe was
sacred to her. A French soldier having one day
grievously wounded an English prisonei^ Joan dis-
mounted, raised the dying man, and, su{porting his
head in her hands, made him confess himself,
solacing him with comfortable word^ until he
breathed his last.

Scarcely armed, she mounted in hot haste and
dashed across the town through a l^yrinth of
narrow streets, making the sparks fly from her
horse's hoofs by the pace at which she role. When
astonishment was expressed that she sh)uld have
gone straight to the spot where fighting was pro-
ceeding, without knowing the way, she sUd: "My
voices wakened me; my voices told me he way."
The courage and coolness she displayed in^his first

^ Evidence of Louis de Contes, Joan of Arc's page.
* A vulgar term of abuse very common in the fifteenth century ;
meaning no more than m^chant garfon at the present day^

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ORLEANS

encounter were marvellous. The English made a
desperate resistance. Without taking any personal
share in the fighting, Joan stood at the edge of the
moat, her standard in her hand, and for three hours
urged on the attacking force. When the fortress
had been taken and all who were in it either killed
or taken prisoners, her womanhood reasserted itself,
and she was overwhelmed with pity. "She wept
over the slain, at the thought that they had died
without confession."^

Thursday, the fifth May was Ascension Day, and
the o£Bcers refused to fight " out of reverence for the
day." Joan considered that it would be no sin
against God^ to proceed with the fighting, for was it
not Christ Himself who said " Which of you shall
have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not
straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day"?
The salvation of Prance was just as urgent in her
eyes, but she yielded to their scruples and set an
example to all by keeping holy the festival. She
was confessed and received the sacrament, and en-
treated all the inhabitants, and especially her fellow-
soldiers, to confess themselves likewise. Since she
had become a leader she considered herself in
conscience bound to watch over the spiritual welfare
of her troops. She continuously exhorted them
to turn from evil, and seek repentance, and had
reformed the morals of the army, as far at least as

^ Evidence of her confessor Pasquerel.

^The very accurate Chrontque du siige confirms this, but
Pasquerel, it is true, denies it. It will be seen further on that
she also wished to fight on the 8th Sept., the feast of the Nativity
of the Virgin, for which she was reproached by her judges.

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JOAN OP ARC

it was possible. She banished all women of loose
character, and loudly proclaimed that God would
not award victory to unrepentant sinners. She did
her utmost to suppress the licentiousness, blasphemy
and pillage around her, and all the abominable
excesses which too frequently accompanied them.
Without exaggerating the depth or lasting value of
the conversions which she made, it is safe to assert
that her noble apostleship was not fruitless. She at
least succeeded in awakening in the hearts of the
soldiers, a lively religious sentiment, a faith in God,
an earnestness in prayer, and, if they sincerely
wished to deserve it, a hope of salvation.

So little did her first victory elate her, that before
following up her success she actually wished to
make one more proposal of peace to the English. A
second letter was despatched to them by means of
an arrow, since they had unlawfully detained her
messengers. The English read her letter, and the
only answer they vouchsafed was an outburst of
insults, the echo of which ascended to the ramparts
upon which she stood. When she heard them, " she
commenced to sigh and weep bitterly, invoking the
aid of the King of Heaven." Shortly afterwards she
said that "she was comforted, for her Lord had
spoken to her." ^

On Friday, the 6th May, the fortress of the
Augustins was taken by assault with the same
valour and the same success. On Saturday, the
7th, they attacked the Tourelles, which commanded
the bridge across the Loire to the south of Orleans.
^ Evidence of PasquereL

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ORLEANS

At early dawn Joan rose and armed herself to go
to the assault. Her host, who had received a present
of a fine shad, said to her: "Joan, let us eat the
shad before you go." "In the name of God,"
answered she, "let no one touch it before supper,
for we shall recross the bridge and bring you back a
*Godon'^ who will eat his share of it with us."
Although naturally of a serious disposition, she did
not despise those repartees of gay and sprightly
humour which used formerly to be distinctive of the
French race.

Some of the commanders considered the attack
upon the Tourelles imprudent and premature, but
Joan's enthusiasm swept every obstacle before it.
The attack began at six o'clock in the morning, and
both sides fought furiously until the afternoon with-
out much result. About one o'clock, Joan went down
into the moat to set a ladder against the wall, and
in so doing was wounded by an arrow just above the
right breast. At first she was unnerved and began
to weep, either from fear or from the pain, but she
soon recovered herself, drew out the point with her
own hands and seemed to recover her cheerfulness.
Some soldiers wanted to " charm " ^ the wound, but
she refused, saying, "I would sooner die than do
anything I considered to be a sin, or against the will
of God. Pull well I know that I must die, but I
know neither when, nor where, nor how, nor at
what hour. If they can dress my wound without

^ A nickname for Englishmen, because of their oath, "God-
dam/*

^ Soothe the pain with magic words.

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JOAN OP ARC

sin, I am quite willing that it should be dressed."
They applied a dressing of olive oil which soothed
the pain.

The leaders wished to stop the assault until the
following day. She strongly objected to this proposi-
tion and, in spite of her wound, returned to the fray
after a short prayer. Such heroism in a woman
— in a mere child of seventeen — ^transformed the men
who witnessed it into heroes. The French rushed
furiously to the attack. The English who believed
Joan to have been killed, or mortally wounded, were
dumbfounded at seeing her re-appear upon the trench,
where, waving her standard, she shouted to her men,
"The day is yours I Enter!" The bridge which
connected the ramparts with the Tourelles gave
way, and several hundreds of the English, among
whom was their leader, Glassdale, fell into the
water and were drowned. This ended the resist-
ance, and before nightfall the Tourelles were
occupied. The enemy, to the number of four or
five hundred, lost the whole of their men, killed or
taken prisoner. Upon seeing this great slaughter,
Joan began to weep, and prayed for the souls of
Glassdale and the soldiers who had been drowned
with him. The author of the journal du Sihge was
also afflicted, but from less pious motives. He
deplored the number of the dead as a "great mis-
fortune for the valiant French who might have made
money out of their ransoms."

On Saturday night Joan entered Orleans amid
shouts of joy and triumph. But even she did not
yet know the full extent of her victory. During the

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night, whilst she was resting and nursing her wound,
the English retreated in good order from their strong-
holds and drew themselves up for battle. In the
morning, however, when the French were hesitating
whether to accept the challenge that seemed offered
them, the enemy suddenly veered round in the direc-
tion of Meun. Adhering to her customary moderation,
Joan forbade their being pursued. " Let them escape
to-day " ; she said, " you will catch them some other
time." Orleans was now free. Before sunset the
inhabitants had finished demolishing and burning
the fortresses and had triumphantly brought back
the artillery and provisions abandoned by the English.
A solemn procession then paraded the streets, going
from church to church returning thanks to God for
so great a victory. Joan's whole being was filled
with joyous thanksgiving to the God who had guided
her so well, and had deigned to employ such an
humble instrument for the accomplishment of such
great deeds. But as if her modesty would fain
escape with all speed from the popular enthusiasm,
she left Orleans the day after the victory to return
to Blois, and from thence to Tours, whither the king
came from Chinon to meet her. Charles welcomed
her most warmly and evinced his intense delight;
but she, kneeling modestly before him, addressed
him in the following words : " Noble Dauphin, come
and be crowned at Rheims; I am urged to bid you
go. Doubt not but that in that city you will be
honourably crowned."

It is evident that she was eager to accomplish her
mission, being fully conscious and never hesitating

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JOAN OP ARC

to say (the Duke of Alen^on testified to this effect),
''that she would not last long, a year perhaps, or
scarcely longer." But the more ardour she dis-
played, the more suspicious the court became. The
idea of marching to I^eims, through a district still
strongly held by the English garrisons, seemed to
all the counsellors of Charles VII. an utter im-
possibility. The relief of Orleans, no doubt, had
been a military event of great importance and one
accomplished with astonishing rapidity ; and yet to
the people at the time it did not appear to be the
first act in the resurrection of Prance, as clearly as
it does to us. Satisfied with this one success, the
wise men, or those who considered themselves as
such, feared to compromise the fruits of it by so
soon seeking another victory. Others, of whom La
Trimoille, the favourite, was one, were jealous of
this triumph of the Maid. Many more were indolent,
and feared to face the inevitable difBculties and
dangers. Finally there were those who were still
stubbornly perplexed about the true nature of Joan
of Arc's power. By the English she was believed to
be a witch, and some of the Prench still feared that
the English were right. The illustrious Gerson,^ who
died a few weeks later, five days before the coronation,
strove to reassure these timid souls, and, judging
from every aspect of Joan's mission, asserted without
reservation that it was a mission inspired by God.

But," he added, " it is essential to have faith in her
whom He sends, otherwise, in spite of her having

^ A reftigee since 1419 at Lyons, in the Monastery of the
C^lestms, where he died on the 12th July 1429.

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ORLEANS

been sent by God, she will fail, so that our faithless-
ness may be punished."

In spite of the weight of such a guarantee, the
Court still did not dare to " believe," but continued
to hesitate till the end of May. Joan was in despair
at seeing so much precious time wasted. After
three months of testing, after Orleans had been
delivered, they still wearied her with questions
and scruples. One day at the Castle of Loches,^
having suddenly entered the king's apartment while
he was deliberating with Christophe de Harcourt,
Gerard Machet, his confessor, and Robert de
Ma^on, the former chancellor, upon what course
of action they should decide to pursue, she again
entreated him to march to Rheims. " Did your
voices tell you this ?" asked Christophe de Harcourt.
"Yes." "Would you not be willing, here, in the
king's presence, to tell us how your counsellors
speak to you ? " "I quite understand what you
wish to know, and I will tell you willingly. When
I am displeased because the things that I am
commanded by God to say are not believed, I
retire alone and I pray to God; and I complain
to Him that no one will believe me. And after I
have prayed to God, I hear a voice saying to me,
' Daughter of God, go ! go I go ! I shall be beside
thee. Go I ' And when I hear this voice I rejoice
exceedingly and I would I were always in that state 1 "
These words she spoke with a wonderful exultation,
her eyes raised to heaven.

The human heart is so fashioned that those by
1 Evidence of Dunois.

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JOAN OP ARC

whom the greatest miracles are witnessed are some-
times the most grudging in their admiration. While
on the morrow of the relief of Orleans, the counsellors
of Charles VII. persisted in refusing to believe in the
mission entrusted to the Maid, the report of her ex-
ploits was arousing enthusiasm and love far and wide.
Christine de Pisan sang of Joan of Arc in her convent
at Poissy. In his retreat with the C^lestins at
Lyons, Gerson was writing, in her behalf, his last
book. During the month of May, the Archbishop
of Bmbrun, Jacques Gelu, was engaged in examining,
as Gerson had done, whether the Maid's mission had
a divine character, and pronounced most energeti-
cally in the affirmative. He wished the king and
his officers to consult her in everything; and the
more weak and impotent God's chosen instrument
appeared, the more dread had he of calling down the
divine wrath, if this instrument were disdained. In
Rome, a Frenchman, the anonymous author of an
Histoire Universelle,^ on hearing of the relief of
Orleans, burst forth into transports of admiration.
He considered this military achievement to be the
greatest event which had occurred since the be-
ginning of the world. He affirmed the divine nature
of Joan's mission, and announced that she would save
France. " For it is God who is working through her;
her answers are short and direct ; her discretion and
behaviour irreproachable. She is free from all super-
stition, although her enemies accuse her of it. Let
no one attribute to the devil the wonders she has

^ See this extremely curious evidence in the Bibliothique de
tJEcoU des Chartesy vol. xlvi. p. 650 (1885).

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ORLEANS

worked, since these wonders are in accordance with
right, favourable to faith and morality, and justified
by the holiness of her life." And so while she was
still being discussed at Chinon, she was being
eulogised in Rome.

It was at last decided, with Joan's approval, that
a small army should be entrusted to her under the
command of the young Duke of Alen^on (a son-in-
law of the Duke of Orleans, who was a prisoner in
the hands of the English); that with these troops
she should try to recover the positions on the Loire
occupied by the English ; and that in the event of the
campaign being successful, and the road to Rheims,
or at any rate the first stages on it, being cleared,
an advance should be made to that town to crown
the king. The plan seemed a wise one, and Joan
herself, in spite of her impatience to accomplish
the second part of her mission, recognised the
necessity of first clearing the valley of the Loire.
At the very beginning of June the preparations for
the campaign were energetically begun. Attracted
by the Maid's wonderful renown, volunteer reinforce-
ments flowed in to the King of Prance from every
side.

Among these new comers there were two brothers,
two young nobles called Guy and Andrd de Laval,
who joined Joan of Arc at Selles-en-Berry on Monday,
the 6th J une. One of them, Guy, gives a vivacious
description of his interview with her in a letter dated
the 8th June and addressed to their mother and
grandmother. " I went to her lodgings to see her ;
she had some wine brought and told me that she

JOAN OP ARC

would soon make me drink of it in Paris. It seems
something quite divine to see and listen to her.
This very Monday she left Selles at vespers,^ to go
to Romorantin, three leagues further on . . . and
I saw her, entirely clad in white armour except her
head, and holding a little battle axe in her hand,
mount a great black charger that plunged and reared
violently at the door of her house, and would not
allow her to get on its back ; upon which she said :
* Lead him to the cross,* which stood before the
church close by upon the road. There she mounted
without the horse stirring any more than if he had
been bound. And then she turned towards the door
of the church, which was quite near, and said, in a
very womanly voice : 'You priests and clergy, make
a procession and prayers to God I* Then she
turned back to go her way, saying, * Porward,
forward 1 * Her standard was folded and carried
by a graceful page, and her little battle axe was in
her hand."

We have no portrait of Joan of Arc of the slightest
authentic value. Even the descriptions of her ap-
pearance and her person that have come down to
us, are so vague and general that it is impossible
for us to picture her to ourselves with any degree
of accuracy or truth. The innumerable representa-
tions of the heroine are all purely fanciful, and the
fancy is rarely happy.^ Here, at all events, are the

^ In the evening, or rather, in the afternoon.

' It is a pity that the painters and sculptors should wantonly
contradict the authentic evidence in their representations of Joan
of Arc. They may make her beautiful or ugly— that is their

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ORLEANS

characteristics pretty well established by concur-
rence of evidence. Joan of Arc was rather tall —
only one witness described her as short, but a woman
dressed as a man, unless she is of an exceptional
height, may appear small without being really small
for her sex. She was strong and well proportioned.
There was nothing masculine about her save her
gestures; her face was entirely womanly and her
voice especially soft.^ Her hair was black ^ and
cropped round the neck. No evidence tells us
whether her features were well cut or regular ; the
rough life of the fields had, no doubt, marred their
delicacy, for even the testimonies which praise the
fine proportions of her figure and the natural grace
of her gait and bearing, admit that she certainly
looked a peasant. It is as a peasant that we
prefer her, for in this sturdy daughter of the
fields we can more easily descry the fine sap
of the mother country than in the soft, slender
form with which our artists and sculptors have too

affair, and each one gives us what he sees or what he is capable
of — but they should not represent her with endless waves of hair
flowing down her back, when we know that at the trial she was
blamed for nothing so bitterly as for having worn her hair short
and cropped round the ears "in man's fashion." Her costume is
accurately described in the documents of the trial. It consisted of
a shift, breeches, tunic, long hose (caligis) joined together and
fastened to the tunic hy twenty eyelet-holes, boots (sotularibus)
laced high on the outside, a short dress reaching to the knee or
thereabouts, a short hood (capucio)^ close-fitting lyings {acreis
seu haHsellis\ long spurs, sword, dagger, breastplate, lance, and
the rest of the armour worn by men-at-arms.

^ Letter of Perceval de Boulainvilliers to the Duke of Milan.

' Evidence of the registrar of La Rochelle.

JOAN OP ARC

frequently endowed Joan of Arc, in disregard of all
the evidence.

It would, however, be another and an equally
grave mistake to impute to Joan of Arc, in no matter
how small a degree, anything of the virago. One
can discover nothing, absolutely nothing, either in
her physical appearance, in her tastes or in her
moral sentiments, which may be properly described
as masculine ; nothing even, I might say, strange as
it may seem, which was really military or warlike.

Joan should not be compared with those virile
women of ancient or modern times, who had a
personal taste for war, and who passionately sought
the din of battle and the glory of arms. The majority
of these women had from childhood given evidence
of masculine tastes, an adventurous temperament
and a love of danger. Joan was entirely difiPerent.
There was not a single incident in her childhood
which distinguished her from the other girls of her
own age and walk in life ; she was merely graver and
more pious than the rest. No form of violent
exercise seems to have appealed to her; she was
neither amazon nor huntress, and we cannot find
her, during the year she spent among soldiers,
taking part in or even assisting at any military sports
of tilt or tournament.^ By grace and by her own
strength of will she became a soldier suddenly, in a
day ; nothing had previously indicated this vocation,

1 One day, however, she galloped before the king and the
Duke of Alen9on, her lance in rest. This was shortly after her
arrival at Chinon, when it was necessary for her to show that she
was capable of supporting the fatigues of a soldier's life.

ORLEANS

nothing had prepared her for it. Or rather, to put
the matter differently, can she properly be said to
have become a soldier at ail — she who was never
seen to strike a single enemy with her own hand,
and could boast to her judges, when they hypocriti-
cally accused her of being " bloodthirsty," that her
hands had never shed blood ?

The poet has described magnificently that frenzy
of battle which seizes hold of the most humane : —

Voil^ que par degr^s, de sa sombre d^mence

Le combat les enivres ; 11 leur revient an coeur

Ce je ne sair quel Dieu qui veut qu'on soit vainqueur,

£t qui, s'exasp^rant aux armmes frapp^,

Mele r^clair des yeux aux lueurs des ^p6es.i

Joan of Arc never experienced this fever of steel
striking upon steel, this fierce ecstacy of death dealt
or eluded. In that age a battle was still for the
most part a mass of duels, but Joan of Arc, it seems,
never engaged in single conflict with any enemy.
But intrepid and careless of her own life, or trusting,
perhaps, in the invisible Angel which hovered over
her, she was first in rushing to the attack, her
standard in her hand, while the avenging host pre-
cipitated themselves behind her through the opening
she had made. She was not a fighter ; but the soul
of the entire army, or rather the soul of France was
incarnate in her fragile body and virgin form. Par

1 Hugo, Mariage de Roland, (See how by degrees with its
sullen frenzy the battle intoxicates them ; what God it is I know
not who takes possession of their hearts, willing them to conquer,
and who, maddened with the clash of arms, mingles the lightning
of the eye with the flash of swords.)

JOAN OF ARC

from being bloodthirsty, she desired only peace;
peace which is the most beautiful of all things except
justice. The English must give back Prance, which
they had stolen ; but if they should be willing to give
it back without war, God be praised. She did not
stipulate that Agincourt should be avenged, but only
the English should depart, giving Prance back to her
king. Let them only go forth from Prance and
they should not be pursued.^ That is not the
language of a woman whose head is turned by
love of warlike exploits. Upon the battlefield she
astounded all the soldiers by her dauntless enthusiasm.
In the council she surprised the officers by her
judgment in military matters, and by a prophetic
instinct which frequently enabled her to gain a clearer
insight than that even of age or experience. In our
own generation, competent judges who have studied
her campaigns, declare that there were in her the
qualities of a great leader, as well as a certain genius
for war.2 The genius perhaps, but not the love.
She loved nothing but France and fought to free
her, but war in itself afforded her no pleasure. Once
her armour was laid aside and the council finished,
she again became gentle, retiring, modest; talking
very little, praying much^ a devout little peasant girl
far more than a youthful warrior. One would have

* Evidence of Simon Beaucroix, her squire, whom she one day
prevented from pursuing the retreating enemy.

* Upon this head see an extremely curious statement of the
Duke of Alen9on {Prods de rehabilitation). She excelled, he
says, in disposing the troops to advantage, especially the
artillery. In this she would have been more than a match for
some officers of twenty or thirty years' experience.

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ORLEANS

thought there were two women in her, yet these
two women were really one, who was ever striving
to do what it pleased God she should do, and to act
the part which it pleased Ood she should act. " She
always seemed ready to listen and instantly to obey."

One proof of her wisdom and her modesty is the
fact that even at the very height of her extraordinary
success she was never betrayed into the slightest
presumption. Fully convinced as she was that God
had sent her and that God was guiding her, she
never neglected any human precautions. She would
have been afraid of tempting Providence by asking
for useless miracles merely to repair her careless-
ness or mistakes. This explains why she took such
immense care while on a campaign to avoid sur-
prises,^ and why she consented so readily to begin
the campaign in the Loire valley instead of marching
upon Rheims without waiting another day, which is
what she at first longed to do. She ever listened to
reason, and God rewarded her prudence, for the
campaign on the Loire was quite as rapid as the
relief of Orleans, and perhaps even more marvellous.

^ Evidence of Perceval de Cagny, steward to the Duke of
Alen9on, and the earliest historian of Joan of Arc. He wrote
about her as far back as 1436.

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CHAPTER IV

RHBIMS

liB campaign of the Loire was finished in a

^ week. On Saturday, 11th June, the royal
army, eight thousand strong, arrived before Jargeau.
On Sunday, the 12th, the attack was begun. The
Duke of Alen9on hesitated to storm the town.
''Noble Duke, art thou afraid?" asked Joan;
have promised thy wife to bring thee back safe and
sound." The town defended itself most vigorously.
A stone struck Joan upon the helmet and threw her
to the ground, but she sprang up immediately, crying,
" Up I Up I Friends, Our Lord has condemned the
English." The town was taken, and Suffolk, who com-
manded, was made prisoner. Five hundred English
perished, and the survivors capitulated. On the 15th,
the French seized the bridge of Meun, and on the
16th, attacked Beaugency, which surrendered on the
17th. An army of reinforcement which had been
sent from Paris under the command of Falstolf, but
had arrived too late and been obliged to beat a
retreat, was pursued and overtaken at Patay on the
18th June. The French were still haunted by the
fatal memories of Cr^cy, Poitiers and Agincourt.
The superiority of the English in the field seemed an
established fact, and the position they now occupied

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RHBIMS

was favourable and strong. Joan's army shrank from
attacking them. "In the name of God," she said,
" we must fight. Were they suspended from the very
heavens we should still be able to reach them!
Have you good spurs?" — "What!" quoth the
Duke of Alen9on, " are we then to fly ? " — " Nay, it
is the English who will fly, but you will need spurs
to pursue them." The whole army precipitately
followed her, for she had a marvellous influence
over the soldiers, and a true leader's gift of animat-
ing her followers. The battle was short ; one of the
two wings of the English army retreated owing to
a misunderstanding, and the other was cut to pieces.
Pour thousand of the enemy were captured or slain.
The entire valley of the Loire, as well as Orleans,
was now free.

After such wonderful successes one would think
that the Court could no longer have refused to be-
lieve in Joan of Arc, and that those who were about
the king would have supported her as passionately
as the people and the army did. Nothing .of the
sort occurred ; the jealousy in La Tr^moille's heart
persisted and even increased as the Maid's authority
in the country became greater. La Tr^moille was
master of Charles VII., not only because he had
been able to acquire absolute personal influence
over the weak character of the king, but also because
of the money which he had lent him, money which
was the principal resource of the exhausted kingdom.
The wealthy favourite lent enormous sums to the
impoverished prince at very high interest. The
sworn enemy of the Constable de Richemont,

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whose disgrace he had desired and obtained, La
Tr^moille had been intensely amazed and mortally
alarmed at seeing Joan first of all accept a rein-
forcement of fifteen thousand men, brought her by
Richemont at his own expense, and then intervene
between the king and the disgraced constable,
promising the latter that she would restore him to
favour. Upon this point there was open war be-
tween La Tr^moille and Joan, and this time Joan
was beaten. Richemont was forbidden to present
himself before the king and was excluded from the
journey to Rheims, which, after much vacillation, the
Court had finally decided to undertake.

This is but one example out of a hundred of the
obstacles with which Joan's mission constantly found
itself confronted. The opposition, secret or declared,
which Joan of Arc met with at Court, from almost
all the politicians and from many of the military
leaders, from her arrival at Chinon until that fatal
day when she was taken prisoner (some say be-
trayed, let us at the least say abandoned), at
Compi^gne, is an absolutely certain fact. After she
had raised the siege of Orleans, they would not
follow her to Rheims. After her marvellous cam-
paign on the Loire they still hesitated. It was
she who started first and then they were obliged to
follow her ; but they grumbled as they followed her.
At the very first obstacle, before Troyes, they wished
to retreat. The town surrendered, and the corona-
tion took place. She wanted to march upon Paris
with all possible speed. They turned aside from
Soissons towards Chateau-Thierry, Provins, and

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Bray-sur-Seine, and engaged in dilatory negotia-
tions with the Duke of Burgundy. Joan, who had
divined the Burgundians' game, wished to return
to Paris, and carried off a portion of the army.
After a fortnight's delay, the king, acting under
compulsion and against his will, slowly followed.
The attack took place in the king's absence, and
as if under his protest. It failed. Joan, although
wounded, wished to persevere but was forcibly re-
moved. She wanted to renew the attack upon the
following day; but they destroyed the bridge over
which she would have had to pass to reach
Paris, and Charles VII. abandoned St Denis and
marched off with the entire army in the direction
of the Loire. The winter came to an end without
Joan having been allowed to attempt anything except
a few insignificant efforts which failed owing to the
lack of sufiBcient means to carry them through. In
the spring nothing was said to her about renewing
the campaign, and without asking the king's leave
she escaped from the idle Court. A month later
she was captured, and the Archbishop of Rheims
wrote to the people of that town, that she had fully
deserved her fate. After this the Court mentioned
her no more and allowed her to be dragged from
one prison to another, to be put in chains, to be
judged, condemned and burned, without a word or
a sign. The one desire of Charles VII. and his
courtiers seemed to be that she should never be
spoken of again, and that she should be forgotten*
Indeed so completely did it become a rule never to
speak of Joan of Arc any more than if she had never

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existed, that three years after her death (1434) at
a meeting of the States-General at Blois, in an
official document which described and thanked
God for the victories won by the royal armies
since the relief of Orleans, Joan's name is not even
mentioned.

Perhaps she had some presentiment of this in-
gratitude of man when, even at the height of her
triumphal progress, she frequently appeared so sad,
though she never showed discouragement. She could
scarcely help being conscious of the king's misgivings
at the beginning of the journey to Rheims, for he
would not permit the queen to follow him thither,
but sent her to a safe place beyond the Loire not
daring to trust her to Joan of Arc and her little
army of seven or eight thousand men.^ It certainly
seemed an inadequate force with which to traverse
eighty leagues of country almost entirely held by
the enemy; and the enterprise would have been a
rash one had not the rapid successes of the last
two months greatly demoralised the English, and at
the same time revived the patriotism and hopes of
the royalist party in many towns which, though
held in check by their garrisons, had never
become English except in name. Possibly the
French did not know how much prestige their
cause had gained during the two months. They can
hardly have done so, seeing that the army of Charles
VII. did not dare pass through Auxerre, a town
which, though it was in the hands of the Burgundians

^ Other evidence brings up the army to i2,ocx), but they had
neither money nor provisions.

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and kept its gates closed, was not unwilling to repro-
vision the army for a money payment. The 5th
July found them before Troyes whose garrison,
was partly composed of English and partly of
Burgundians. The day before, Joan had despatched
to the " burghers and inhabitants " a letter which at
first they ridiculed, till the events of the morrow,
however, proved to them that it was no longer wise
to scoff at the Maid of Orleans. This is the letter :
yesus, Maria, — ^Very dear and worthy friends, lords,
burghers and people of the town of Troyes, Joan
the Maid summons you and gives you notice, on
behalf of the King of Heaven, her right and sovereign
Lord, to render true allegiance and acknowledgment
to the noble King of Prance, who will soon be at
Rheims and Paris, no matter who marches against
him ; and in the good towns of his holy realm, with
the help of God, and in all the towns which are to be
in his holy Kingdom, and we shall make] therein a
blessed and lasting peace, in spite of all opposition.
I commend you to God."

The " burghers and inhabitants " vouchsafed
no answer, but remained silent and distrustful
behind their strong walls. There happened to be
in Troyes a Pranciscan friar,^ Brother Richard,
a very celebrated preacher, who had recently left
Paris, whence he had been banished by the English,
who were uneasy at his brilliant reputation. He
wished to meet Joan. Everyone about him spoke
of her as a witch, and when he came to the royal

^ According to other evidence. Brother Richard was an
Augustinian.

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JOAN OP ARC

camp, Joan saw him approaching her warily, making
the sign of the cross and sprinkling holy water as he
drew near. " Approach fearlessly," she cried to him,
" I shall not fly away." He returned, marvelling at
her, but all his eloquence failed to persuade the
people of Troyes to throw open their gates to the
King and to the Maid.

The French had neither provisions enough to
blockade the town nor instruments with which to
besiege it. They were greatly perplexed and the
king's council already discussed the advisability of
retreating. Joan, after many entreaties, obtained
two days* grace, promising that before they were
over, the town would have surrendered.

Owing to a lucky and audacious stroke, the entire
credit of which is due to Joan, this actually happened.
Without any adequate means of attacking, she gave
orders that everything should be made ready for an
assault. Her standard in her hand she walked alone
towards the moat; thousands of men followed her
in confusion, but filled with ardour. She com-
manded them to make fascines with which to fill
up the ditch, and they were at work upon them the
whole of that day and the following night. The
next morning she had the first fascines thrown down,
crying : To the assault I " But the bishop and the
burghers at once offered to capitulate, and on Sunday,
the 10th July, while the garrison went out by one
gate the king entered by the other.

Joan had never shown more good sense in her
apparent temerity. She was the only person in the
royal army who realised that her power did not lie

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RHEIMS

merely in the sword or the arrow, or in engines of
siege; but that she was pre-eminently a moral
force ; that the sign of God was on her brow ; and
that almost without any material resources, but with
the help of that sacred prestige, she could accomplish
things which clever, wise men reduced to ordinary
measures, dared not even conceive. It is certain
that Troyes was taken because she pretended to
attack it ; but the successful result of this feint is
a testimony alike to her faith in God and in her
mission, and to her excellent sense of what the time
and the circumstances required.

The surrender of Troyes involved the surrender
of Chalons-sur-Marne, and that in its turn involved
the surrender of Rheims. Although Rheims was
nominally subject to the English king, the majority
of its inhabitants were in the habit of praying for
Charles VII. They were now freed from foreign
garrisons and at once inspired and protected by
the example of Troyes and Chalons. Accordingly,
on the 16th July, when the leading men were in-
formed that the King of Prance was within four
leagues of their town, in spite of all the letters,
threats and promises of the English and the
Burgundians, they despatched a deputation to him
entreating him to enter. This he did on the same
day, and on the next day, Sunday, the 17th
July 1429, Charles VII. was solemnly crowned in
his own cathedral of Rheims, by the hand of its
archbishop. The six lay peers and three of the
ecclesiastical peers who should have played their
parts in the ceremony were wanting, but their

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places were filled by others, and, considering how
hastily it was prepared and performed, the coronation
of Charles VII. has nevertheless remained famous
among all other ceremonies of the same kind which
Prance has witnessed. That is because we always
see in it the figure of Joan of Arc, as she stood
beside the king, holding her standard in her hand,
for as it had shared in the toil, it was just that it
should share in the glory." When the picture of
that scene is evoked in the mind, it effaces all the
splendours of the many other royal coronations upon
which Prance has lavished her treasure.^

* Nevertheless the ceremony was not without brilliancy.
Three noblemen from Anjou who were present at the corona-
tion gave the following description of it in a letter written to the
Queen of France, and her mother, the Queen of Sicily : ** It was a
mighty fine thing to see the great ceremony, for it was as solemn,
and the king found everything as well and as properly appointed
(such as royal garments and things appertaining thereto) as if he
had ordered it a year beforehand, and there were so many people
that it would be endless to write of them, and there was great
joy felt by everybody. . . . And during the said ceremony the
Maid of Orleans kept always near the king, holding her standard
in her hand. And it was a very fine sight to see the beautifiil
manners of the King and also of the Maid. And when the king
was anointed and also when they placed the crown on his head,
everyone cried ** Noel ! " -and the trumpets sounded in such a
way that it seemed as if the roof of the church must fall." Among
the spectators we must not forget Joan's father, Jacques d'Arc,
whose presence in Rheims on the day of the coronation and on
the following days is vouched for by the town accounts. But we
know nothing about the meeting between father and daughter
after a separation of six months which had brought so many
changes. One can hardly doubt, however, that if Jacques d'Arc
came from Domremy to Rheims to meet Joan of Arc, it was
because he had forgiven her and was proud of such a daughter.

RHBIMS

'*As soon as the Maid saw that the king was
anointed and crowned, she knelt down before him
in the presence of all the courtiers, and clasping his
knees, said to him, while the hot tears rained down her
face : * Noble King, now has been accomplished the
will of God, which was that I should raise the siege
of Orleans and bring you to this city of Rheims to
receive your fitting coronation, showing that you
are the true king and he to whom the Kingdom of
Prance should belong.' And all those who were
watching her were greatly touched." ^

This account does not tell us that, on the evening
of the coronation day, Joan begged the king to send
her home, declaring that her mission was now ful-
filled.^ Upon this exceedingly delicate point the
evidence seems contradictory and historians are at
variance. Nothing could be more interesting than
the very comprehensive deposition of Dunois in the
case for rehabilitation. He says that a few days
after the coronation, when passing with the king
through Cr^py-en-Valois (the 10th August 1429),
the people came out in crowds to meet the cortege,
shouting, " Noel 1 " Joan, who was riding between
the Archbishop of Rheims and Dunois, said to them :
"These are worthy people and never have I seen
such great rejoicings at the arrival of so noble a king.
Would to God I might be fortunate enough, when I die,

^ Journal du Sii^e and Chronique de la PucelU, In the latter
no mention is made of Orleans.

' It would be interesting to know, but we are absolutely
ignorant, whether Jacques D'arc, Joan's father, who was present
at Rheims on the day of the coronation, exhorted his daughter to
stay with the king or to return to her parents.

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JOAN OF ARC

to be buried in this country." " Ah, Joan," said the
Archbishop, " in what place do you hope to die ? "
" Wherever it pleases God ; for I am no more certain
than you are of the time or the place. Would to God
my Creator, that I might retire now and lay aside
my arms, to go and serve my father and my mother
and tend the sheep with my sister and brothers,
who would rejoice greatly at seeing me once more."

This statement gives the impression that Joan of Arc
considered that with the coronation her mission was
ended. But it contradicts other evidence of equal
importance. It seems as if Joan herself must have
varied in the manner in which she explained her
mission, representing it at times as so extensive that
she proclaimed schemes for crusades and for the
deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre, and reducing it
at others to four principal objects, two of which had
already been accomplished : the relief of Orleans ; the
coronation of the king ; the recovery of Paris ; and
the freedom of the Duke of Orleans, whom England
had held prisoner for fourteen years and was des-
tined to hold for eleven years more.^ Sometimes,
as on this occasion when she replied in the above
manner to the Archbishop of Rheims^ Joan seemed
to think that after Orleans had been relieved and
the king anointed and crowned, her mission was
accomplished.^

* Evidence of Seguin.

' At Chinon she promised to set the Duke of Orleans free.
(Evidence of Percevsd de Cagny.) She was much attached to the
Duke of Alen9on, son-in-law of the Duke of Orleans. She went
to Saumor to see the Duchess of Alen9on before the campaign of
the Loire and promised to bring her husband back to her safe
and sound.

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A curious statement made by Dunois in his evi-
dence at the trial for rehabilitation enables us to find
a likely explanation of these divergencies. " When
she spoke playfully (Jocose)" he said, " she promised
exploits which were not all realised. When she
spoke seriously of her mission, she restricted it to
the relief of Orleans and the coronation of the
king."

And certainly, without taking into account the
designs of Providence, which are not known to us,
or the commands which Joan received and rightly
or wrongly interpreted, but morely judging from the
point of view of human prudence (frequently too
limited a one, I admit), it would have been wiser of
Joan of Arc to stop on the morrow of the triumph
at Rheims. Was it possible for a mission of en-
thusiasm to last for an indefinite period ? Was not
a purely supernatural prestige bound to lose its
power through familiarity ? Had God promised an
uninterrupted succession of victories ? Was it not
tempting providence to expect or demand it ? More-
over, would not a single reverse destroy the power of
one who, professing to be the direct emissary of
God, should have been invincible ? Our admiration
makes us better judges to-day, but that is after the
lapse of five centuries.

To us it seems that the stake adds somewhat to
the glory of the heroine, but time only can thus
purify our judgments. Contemporaries, on the other
hand, lose faith for the most part in a cause which
they see defeated. How many people, on learning
of the martyrdom at Rouen, must have exclaimed :

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JOAN OF ARC

" She who was to have saved Prance did not know
how to save herself I "

But on the day after the coronation, after those
three months which had been a progress from one
miracle to another, who could have descended to
timid calculations of human prudence ? And if it
was tempting God to demand more miracles than
He had promised, would it not have been doubting
Him to stop so soon, before the task was completed,
as if fearing that "the Lord's hand had waxen
short ? " Joan's own zeal and hopes increased two-
fold. On the 17th July, the day of the coronation,
she sent an urgent, almost haughty letter to the Duke
of Burgundy, calling upon him to make his peace
with the King of Prance. " Mighty and redoubtable
Prince, Joan the Maid bids you, on behalf of the
King of Heaven, my righteous and sovereign Lord,
that the King of Prance and you make a good and
firm peace, which will last for long. Porgive one
another freely and sincerely, as faithful Christians
should. And if it pleases you to war, war against
the Saracens.** In the event, however, of the duke
refusing and remaining obdurate, she assured him
that his defeat was inevitable, no matter what forces
he brought against the legitimate King and the Maid.
" She made no doubt that Paris would shortly be
reduced to submission."^ And all the people, at
any rate in the early days following the coronation,
shared this confidence, and believed that they already

^ Letter of three noblemen of Anjou to the Queen of France
and the Queen of Sicily, bearing the date of the day of the
coronation (17th July 1429).

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saw the capital throwing itself open to its king almost
without a struggle. The aged Christine de Pisan,
an Italian woman whose attachment to Prance was
touching in its voluntary fidelity, came out of her
retreat and broke a continuous silence of eleven
years to compose in honour of the heroine a
triumphal hymn overflowing with hope and en-
thusiasm. The piece is dated the 31st July, two
weeks after the coronation.

L'an mil-quatre-cent-vingt-et-neuf

Reprit k luire le soleil . . .

Or faisons fSte k notre roi ;

Que tr^s bien soit-il revenu ! . . .

Une fillette de seize ans

(N'est-ce pas fors nature ?)

A qui armes ne sont pesant

Ains semble que sa nourriture

Y soit, tant y est forte et dure ;

Et devant eUe vont fuyant

Les ennemis ; ne nul n'y dure . . .

Mais tout ce fait Dieu qui la m^ne . . .

N'apercevez-vous, gent aveugle,

Que Dieu a ici la main mise ? . . .

Voulez-vous contre Dieu combattre . . .

C'est pour n^ant ; rendre leur faut,

Veuillent, ou non ; n'y a si forte

Resistance, qui a I'assaut

De la Pucelle ne soit morte . . .

O Paris, tr^s mal conseill^,

Fols habitants sans confiance !

Aimes-tu mieux £tre essili6

Qu'k ton prince fdre accordance . . .

Car ens entrera, qui qu'en grogne ;

La Pucelle lui a promis.^

^ (In the year 1429 the sun begun to shine again ... let us
hold festival in honour of our king's return. A maiden of sixteen

JOAN OP ARC

This document is a striking example of the con-
fidence and enthusiasm which was universally felt
after the coronation. People seemed already to see
the king in Paris, the English banished, and Prance
liberated. Not content with this, they dreamed of
victorious retaliation, they pictured the Saracens
defeated, the Holy Sepulchre reconquered by the
invincible armies of the King of Prance and of
the Maid. The defeat before Paris and the six
months' long inaction which followed shattered
these illusions ; disenchantment soon set in, quickly
followed by ingratitude; and because it was im-
possible for Joan to do everything at once, they soon
began to ask at court whether she had ever really
done anything at all.

years (does it not seem impossible?), to whom the weight
of arms is not a burden, but rather, it would seem, a source of
nourishment, so strong and hardy is she ; before her the enemy
flies ; none can withstand her. . . . But this is the work of God
who guides her. ... Do you not see, blind folk, that this is the
hand of God ? Would you fight against God ? It is idle. You
must yield whether you will or not. Resistance, however
strong, dies at the Maid's assault. O Paris, ill-advised, foolish
inhabitants without faith ! Do you prefer to be sacked rather than
welcome your Prince. . . . For he will make his entrance in spite
of all your grumbling ; the Maid has promised him. )

CHAPTER V

PARIS AND COMPI&ONB

E have already seen that on the very evening

^ ^ of the coronation day three noblemen of
Anjou ^ wrote from Rheims to the queen, Mary of
Anjou, and to the queen's mother, Yolande of Anjou.
" To-morrow," they said, " the king is to start on his
way towards Paris. . . . The Maid has no doubt
but that she will bring Paris to submission." The
report was accurate enough except that they should
have further added: "Joan and her officers wish
to march upon Paris ; but the king and his council
are against it. The king and the court follow the
army, but they do so under protest and reluctantly."
Thus, whether Joan did or did not firmly believe that
the conquest of Paris was part of her mission, it
is at least certain that the king did not detain her
after the coronation, but that it was her own desire
to stay and continue the war.

The court, weary of campaigning, would have
preferred to enter into negotiations, and was in fact
already negotiating with the Duke of Burgundy who,
either through disgust at the English alliance or
alarm at the victories of Charles VII., or possibly
merely as a ruse to gain time and see what course

Their names are unknown.

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JOAN OP ARC

events were likely to take, signed a truce with the
King of France, and gave hopes of a permanent
peace and the reconciliation of the two branches of
the royal house. In that case Paris, whose master
he proclaimed himself and perhaps really believed
himself to be, would not fail to open its gates to
Charles VII. The court made a grave mistake in
listening to these fine but vague promises.

It so happened that an unbroken succession of
easily won victories kept up the royal illusion during
the early days which succeeded the coronation. All
the towns between Rheims and Paris delivered up
their keys to the King of France, without a battle
and without even having been called upon to
do so. Soissons, Laon, ChAteau-Thierry, Provins,
Coulommiers opened their gates, and precious time
was wasted in receiving their submission. Bedford,
meanwhile, was busy taking to Paris reinforcements
brought from England, and on the 10th August
he defied Charles VII. in an insulting letter in which
he denied him the royal title and loaded Joan of Arc
with abuse. Four days later the two armies found
themselves face to face before Senlis, but no battle
took place; the English who were very strongly
entrenched, refused to leave their positions, and the
French did not dare to attack them. The follow-
ing day, the 16th August, the English returned in
good order to Paris. Beauvais then surrendered to
Charles VII. in spite of its bishop, Peter Cauchon,
whose sympathies were entirely with the English.
Cauchon fled to his masters, vowing vengeance.
We know that he kept his word. Compi^gne

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PARIS AND COMPIEGNE 73

surrendered on the 17th August, then Senlis.
Notwithstanding the irresolution and vacillation
displayed in this extraordinary campaign and the
intrigues and negotiations (both open and secret)
which incessantly thwarted the military tactics and
rendered the movements of the army a matter of
chance, conspicuous advantages remained on the
French king's side, and the victorious march,
which had lasted for four months, had not yet
lost its prestige.

Under such circumstances, the question was
whether to attack Paris. The king and his
councillors were certainly strongly opposed to this
course. On the other hand, the Duke of Alengon
and most of the commanders considered the occa-
sion a favourable one. Joan of Arc shared their
opinion, or rather had made them accept hers. Her
voices did not require her to undertake this, neither
did they forbid it. Her evidence upon this point is
very precise, and should be recorded.

" Asked whether, when she went to Paris, she had
had any revelation from her voices bidding her go,
she replied that she had not, but that the attack
had been made at the instance of some noblemen who
wished to have a skirmish or a trial of arms, and
were fully determined to make their way through
and pass the trenches." ^

Thus, at the risk of irritating the judges, several
of whom had been in Paris on the day when she
attacked the St-Honor^ gate, Joan of Arc refused
to let it be believed that she had merely wished to

^ Examination on the 13th of March.

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make an empty demonstration before the town. No
doubt the means at the disposal of the royal army
were entirely insufficient to enable them to besiege
and take a place like Paris in the regular way ; but
surely Joan had reason to count upon other assist-
ance. Paris was exceedingly divided. The English
were hated there even by the Burgundians; the
Duke of Bedford was so execrated that he thought
he was helping the cause of his nephew, the king,
by leaving the town upon the approach of Charles.
Some account, too, must be taken of the feelings
which must have been aroused in the people's
minds. The son of the old French kings was at
hand, with all the prestige of his recent coronation ;
and old memories had been awakened in Paris, a
city which had long been loyal and had been miserable
ever since she had lost the ancient dynasty to which
she was bound by a thousand ties. We may fairly
say that, though Joan's daring enterprise ended in
failure, it is possible and even probable it would
have succeeded if her party had been willing to
persevere in it.

She left Compi^gne with the Duke of Alen9on
on the 23rd August; and on Friday the 26th, St-
Denis was occupied without opposition.^ The king
followed his army slowly and from afar, as if he did
not dare either to disown it or to lead it. He

^ According to the Duke of Alengon it was at St Denis that
Joan broke the sword of St Catherine, by striking with the flat
side of it a woman of loose character whom she was driving out
of the army. Superstition believed that her luck deserted her
with the loss of this enchanted weapon ; even the chronicler, Jean
Chartier, believed this to have been the case. It is extraordinary

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reached St-Denis on the 7th of September, the
intervening fortnight having been wasted in futile
skirmishes. The next day, although it was a feast
day (the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin), Joan of Arc
wished to begin the attack. She selected the St
Honors gate which stood on the site of the present
Place du Th^&tre Frangais, and led the assault with
her customary valour. The first barrier was carried,
and they came to the edge of the ditch, into which
Joan, her standard in her hand, was the first to
plunge, although the enemy were hurling all kinds
of projectiles from the top of the walls. They passed
the first ditch, but the second, which was filled with
water, presented a more difficult obstacle. Joan
paused at the brink, sounded the depth of the water
with the pole of her standard, and shouted to the
soldiers to bring some fagots. Just at that moment
a shaft from a crossbow pierced her thigh, but she
bore the pain bravely and continued to urge her men
to fill the moat. Night, however, was closing in,
and Joan's wound had disheartened the army. The
leaders ordered a retreat. Joan refused to stir, but,
protesting to the last, was forcibly removed by the
Duke of Alen9on ; and she always declared that if they
had persevered the town would have been taken. She
certainly believed this, and perhaps she was right.
But after this first reverse, which seems to have been
quite expected, the confusion on every side of her was
general. The king gave a fatal example by writing
to his "good towns" a circular letter, informing

that Imng in a society steeped in superstition, Joan should never
have shown the slightest trace of it in her words or actions.

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them of the truce concluded with his cousin the Duke
of Burgundy, and announcing that, with the desire of
relieving the country, he was taking his army across
the Seine, intending to return with a larger force
** to pursue the remainder of his conquests and the
recovery of his inheritance." Joan of Arc sadly laid
down her arms upon the altar of the Holy Virgin in
the Abbey of St-Denis and followed the deplorable
retreat which put an end to her victories.

They passed through Lagny and Provins, crossed
the Yonne near Sens, which kept its gates closed
to them, proceeded by Courtenay and Montargis
and reached Gien on the 21st September. Scarcely
had the royal army departed from St- Denis, leaving
an insignificant garrison behind it, when the English
re-entered without opposition and once more took
possession of the town and the abbey. Joan's
armour was carried back to Paris as a trophy. No
doubt the re-occupation of St - Denis was not of
much importance as a military event, but the moral
effect of it was great. It was the first to be lost of
the conquests which the king had made during the
previous four months. After the marvellous rise
the descent had begun.

Joan of Arc had every reason to protest against
the Duke of Alen^on when he forcibly dragged her
away from the St Honors gate. Her heroic de-
termination to remain, wounded and helpless, beside
the moat which cut her off from Paris is evidence
enough that she knew better than the officers the
gravity of the proposed decision to retreat.

This was the first time since the 1st May that

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a backward move had been made. It is, of course,
in war often both wise and politic to retreat one
day so as to be able the better to advance the next.
But this was not an ordinary war; it was a holy
war guided by faith and maintained by enthusiasm.
This character was lost by the retreat, and the
army by its shifting and evasive action seemed to
admit that God was no longer with them. It might
perhaps have been wiser (although this is not our
opinion) not to have attacked Paris, not to have
risked themselves with so small a force against so
formidable a foe, against a town in which hatred for
the " Armagnacs " was still implanted in the hearts
of all the lower classes and the majority of the
middle classes (evidence of this hatred was but too
apparent at the trial of Joan of Arc); but since,
rightly or wrongly, they had had the audacity to
attack Paris, it was a very great mistake to retreat
after the first repulse. Rather should they have
struggled on desperately before its walls even at
the risk of perishing in the act.

There is nothing to prove, however, that they
would have perished. The king also had followers
in the town, less numerous, it is true, but resolute,
energetic and powerful. It would not have been
difficult to stir up internal dissensions by which the
royal cause would have profited. The coronation
had altered the opinions of one portion at least of
the clergy. The recovery of St-Denis must have
appealed vividly to the imagination of the people, for
by recovering the tomb of the protector of his race the
King of France seemed to them to have asserted his

JOAN OF ARC

rights. The prestige of the Maid would even
have stood the test of a protracted siege, but
was it not almost bound to be seriously compro-
mised by an unsuccessful attack followed by a
hasty retreat?

On the whole we think there was wisdom in
Joan's apparent rashness. She wished the army
to remain before Paris, or at least to hold St-Denis ;
but she met with no support in these bold schemes,
and found herself obliged to yield to the weakness
of the king and the intrigues of the courtiers. We
say intrigues, because, though everyone concurred
in disregarding Joan's advice, this was certainly not
due to cowardice or even to excess of caution, but
rather to jealousy and mistrust. Even the officers
began to think that this girl had done enough, that
it was time she should return to her native village
or else retire to the background. They were tired of
being eclipsed by her and even of winning victories
under her leadership. The pitiful story of the eigh-
teen months which Joan still had to live is explained
by the jealousy which, in spite of all her modesty,
gentleness and humility, she had succeeded in arous-
ing. That her companions in arms actually betrayed
her as some people have pretended, is untrue ; but
several of them had already betrayed her in their
hearts, and her imprisonment, trial and martyrdom,
which filled her enemies with such keen delight,
did not perhaps cause so very much sorrow to her
so-called friends.

The winter, idle and uneventful, passed heavily for
Joan of Arc. While the king, content at being able

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PARIS AND COMPIEGNE 79

to relapse into his customary state of indolence, was
journeying from town to town and from castle to
castle through the loyal provinces (Berry, Tourraine
and Poitou), Joan was allowed, in order to satisfy
her generous impatience, to go and take a small
stronghold (St Pierre-le-Moutier), and to besiege
la Charit^-sur-Loire,^ the taking of which would
have been an event of greater importance. As,
however, she was not entrusted with sufBcient
troops or any siege apparatus, she failed in the
attempt, and, finding herself short of money and
provisions, was obliged to return without having
taken la Charity. She was not blamed for this, for
the one desire of the court seemed to be to prolong
the inaction. It may have been in order to console
her (they greatly misjudged her if they imagined it
would do so), or possibly it was merely meant to do
her honour, that a few days later, on the 29th of
December 1429, Charles VII. ennobled the Maid 2
and all her family. Her coat of arms^ bore the
lilies of France, and from it her brothers derived
and retained the name of Du Lis. She, however,
without disdaining her king's gift, remained simply
Joan of Arc, or the Maid, and never bore any other
title. After fighting for six months among so many
brave men of noble birth she must have respected
rank, and it would be childish to attribute to her
democratic sentiments which were unknown to the

^ In November 1429.

' At the trial she asserted that this had been done " at the
desire of her brothers and by no request of hers."
' Azure, on two fleur de lis or, a sword argent with hilt or.

JOAN OP ARC

age in which she lived.^ Still, she was too high
minded, too disinterested and too humble of heart
for us to suppose her capable of a vulgar ambition
even though it were a legitimate one. She did not
fight for honours or even honour itself, but for God
and for her country.

The court, therefore, at least to all outward appear-
ances, remained respectful towards Joan of Arc and
apparently grateful for her service. The populace had
lost none of its natural and enthusiastic admiration for
her, and during the winter Joan met with innumerable
proofs of it. She submitted to her popularity only
with reserve. She wished the people to believe
that she was sent by God, inspired by Him and
guided by the angels, but she was greatly displeased
and shocked at anything which seemed to attach
any particular virtue to her personally. The cheers
of the populace were very sweet to her, and she
delighted in the blessings bestowed upon her as she
passed, but she refused to be treated as a saint, and
vehemently repulsed all acts of adoration. Upon
one occasion, when a woman ^ held out some rosaries,
asking her to touch them, she laughingly replied :
"Touch them yourself; they will be just as good."
Her judges accused her of having tried to make
people believe that she had brought back a child
to life. Joan of Arc protested against the accusa-
tion ; she had merely prayed, with all the maidens
and women of Lagny, that the child, who ap-

^ Perceval de Boulainvilliers, in the letter addressed to the
Duke of Milan, says that she loves the soldiers and the nobles,
but avoids large companies and noisy gatherings."
Evidence of Marguerite La Touroulde.

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PARIS AND COMPIEGNE

peared to be dead, might revive sufiQciently to be
baptised.^

She had all the more reason to guard herself in
this way from imprudent and excessive demonstra-
tions of popular favour because of the intriguers
and fanatics who crowded around her, trying to
compromise her and to associate either their frauds
or their chimeras with her sacred cause. Not to
mention the very noisy priest. Brother Richard, who,
ever since she was at Troyes, had insisted upon
following her, many false prophetesses came to her,
endeavouring to identify their follies with her mission.
A woman from la Rochelle, Catherine by name,
pretended that a white lady had appeared to her
and had revealed the spot where lay hidden treasures
to be given to the Maid. Brother Richard considered
that she should by all means be listened to. Joan
bade her return to her husband, and look after her
house and her children. The visionary was so
persistent that she forced Joan into watching with
her during two nights for the white lady who never
came. Joan dismissed this madwoman, but she was
censured for the episode.

Towards the middle of April (Baster that year
fell upon the 16th) Joan of Arc resumed the cam-
paign. Melun had just surrendered to the King of
Prance. Thither Joan betook herself, and it was
there that her " voices " first announced to her that
she would be taken prisoner before Midsummer Day,
a melancholy prediction which from that moment was

^ She neither said that he was dead, nor that he was not dead ; she
said that he gave no sign of life, and that he was black in the face.
F"

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JOAN OF ARC

almost daily repeated to her. As neither the place
nor the hour was revealed to her, however, she did not
lose courage and resolved to continue the campaign.
At Lagny she captured a convoy of four hundred
English, commanded by Praquet d' Arras, a man
of gentle birth, but a veritable brigand whose
hands were soiled with murder and plunder. She
allowed him to be judged, condemned and executed
by the bailifiP of Senlis, and this execution was in
after years unjustly represented by her judges as
manslaughter. Whatever may have been the guilt
of Fraquet d' Arras, a man whose infamy seems
to be clearly proved, Joan of Arc cannot be held
responsible for his condemnation, which was pro-
nounced according to legal forms.

The truce with the Burgundians having ended at
Easter, Philip the Good was anxious to assure
himself of the possession of Compi^gne, which not
unnaturally appeared necessary to him to strengthen
his position in Paris, where the English king had
established him as his lieutenant. With incredible
stupidity, which in anyone else but the king might
have been termed treason, Charles VII. had secretly
consented to allow the Burgundians to enter the
town; but the burghers of Compi^gne, who were
better royalists than the king himself, kept their
gates stubbornly closed. The Burgundians deter-
mined to besiege the town and Joan of Arc deter-
mined to defend it.^ She entered it on the 24th

^ The prestige of Joan of Arc's name was still almost unimpaired,
and perhaps more among the enemy than among the French. In
London, the English soldiers, ** terrified at the Maid's enchant-

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PARIS AND COMPIEGNE 83

of May at sunrise. Guillaume de Flavy was in com-
mand, and displayed great resolution and fidelity.
At five o'clock in the evening of the same day she
resolved to attempt a sortie to drive the enemy
from the positions they occupied on the right bank
of the Oise, but, after having gained some slight
advantage, her little troop of about five hundred
men was repulsed by the Burgundians, who were
in far greater force. Remaining herself with the
rear-guard, Joan retreated, in good order at first,
along the long roadway which stretched across a low
watery meadow to the city gates. The Burgundians,
emboldened by their success, followed in hot pursuit,
seeking to cut off her retreat. Friends and foes
poured in hopeless confusion towards the gates,
through which most of the French succeeded in
passing except the rear guard, among whom was
Joan, which was left struggling to force a passage.
Those who had remained behind in the town
dared not fire, for fear of killing their own men.
The struggling mass drew nearer and nearer, and
the gate was still open, when Guillaume de Flavy,
seized with panic lest the enemy should enter
pell-mell with the French, had the drawbridge
raised and the portcullis lowered. Joan was left
outside with a few brave men who were resolved

ments," refused to embark for France, and Gloucester was obliged
to deal rigorously with these defaulting recruits. The Burgundian
chronicler, Chastelain, said: ''The name of the Maid was so
great and so famous that everyone feared it as a thing of which
one knew not how to judge either for good or for ill ; but she
had already worked and achieved so much that her enemies
dreaded her, and those of her own party adored her."

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JOAN OP ARC

to perish by her side. A crowd of Burgundians
surrounded them, summoning them to surrender.
An archer of the bastard of Wandonne in the
service of John of Luxembourg clutched Joan of
Arc roughly by her garments, causing her to fall
from her horse. She was taken prisoner with her
brother Pierre, the ever faithful d'Aulon,^ and Poton
de Xaintrailles.

Had she been betrayed, delivered and sold by
Guillaume de Plavy the governor of Compi^gne?
Many contemporaries believed this to have been
the case and several historians still believe it.^
Flavy eventually came to a not very respectable
end, but nothing could be less likely than that he
deliberately betrayed Joan of Arc. It should be
remembered that this same man bravely held his

1 This faithful Jean d'Aulon had not left her for a single day
since the king had confided her to his charge. He was one of
the few who never doubted her. At the rehabilitation trial he
said that " all Joan's deeds seemed divine and miraculous, and
that it was impossible for a young maid to have done such deeds
without the will and guidance of our Lord."

^ It has often been related upon the authority of a sixteenth
century book (le Miroir des femmes zferfumses), which founds the
story on the evidence given in 1498 (sixty-eight years after the
event) by two old men nearly ninety years old, to the effect that
on the morning on which she was captured, Joan of Arc had
attended Mass and received the communion in the Church of
St Jacques, and afterwards had said to some of the townspeople
and a band of children assembled in the church : " My children
and dear friends, I tell you that I have been sold and betrayed
and that I shall soon be condemned to die. And therefore I
entreat you to pray God on my behalf, for never again shall I
have the power to serve the kii^ or the kingdom of France. "
This romantic tale, however, is not in the least authentic.

PARIS AND COMPI^GNE 85

own in Compi^gne until the middle of October — ^that
is, for more than six months — ^and finally succeeded
in keeping for the King of Prance the town entrusted
to his honour. Is it likely that a Frenchman capable
of betraying Joan of Arc would not at the same time
have surrendered Compi^gne ? It is far more likely
that he raised the drawbridge to save the town,
without thinking of the Maid, and not realising that
the capture of Joan of Arc was a greater disaster
for the king and a worse disgrace than the loss of
the town. His conception of his duty was wrong,
fatal, even shameful, if you will, but he was not
a deliberate traitor; and Joan of Arc, who in her
prison had but one thought, to escape and fly to
the rescue of besieged Compi^gne, absolved Plavy
by that touching proof of her devotion.

And if this crime of Flavy's, conscious or un-
conscious, is an everlasting blot upon his memory, it
is but fair that the responsibility of it should be
shared by a crowd of secret, but by no means obscure
accomplices — the king and all the court for example
— who had taught him to believe that the fate of the
Maid was a matter of small importance. Joan of
Arc lived for a year and five days after this, and if
during that time Charles VII. or any of his courtiers
took the trouble to find out what had become of her,
we certainly have not been able to discover anywhere
the slightest trace of such solicitude.^

Joan of Arc was now defeated and a prisoner. It
is not our intention to decide between the historians

^ Some arguments to the contrary recently produced have little
weight. See below, p. 87 n.

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who have discussed (somewhat heatedly at times)
whether the attack upon Paris and the defence of
Compi^gne were or were not included in Joan's
mission. Since it failed, it is plain, according to
some, that God had not sent her there. According
to others, the lailure was due to the fault of man,
and God had promised victory only on the condition
that it was merited. The discussion seems to us an
idle one. We confess that we do act know exactly
the limits of the mission entrusted to Joan of Arc,
but it appears to us that the victory of Orleans, tfce
triumph of Rheims, the repulse before Paris and the
disaster of Compi&gne, could all have equally belonged
to it. Defeat does not make Joan of Arc any the
less great; her imprisonment does not condemn hen
On the contrary, adversity hallows her virtue and
her saintliness, and her shameful martyrdom puts a
seal upon them. Let us not pay attention to those
who are shocked by the sight of misfortune, for we
must remember that most of the Saints have ended
their earthly life in martyrdom, not in apotheosis.

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CHAPTER VI

THB PRISON

E have already stated — and we repeat the state-

^ ^ ment here because the indisputable fact has
been disputed wrongly and on insufficient grounds ^ —
that during the period of a year and five days, from
the 24th May 1430, the day upon which Joan of
Arc was taken prisoner, until the 30th May 1431,
the day upon which she was burned, one cannot

^ M. Du Fresne de Beaucourt following d*Averdy and M. de
Beaurepaire, has tried to defend Charles VII. The arguments
alleged reduce themselves to this, that any effort would have been
useless. M. de Beaurepaire considers that any intervention on
the part of the king would only have compromised Joan of Arc.
Considering the result of the trial, the argument is strange. It
is also stated that the University of Paris {Lettre an due de Bour-
gogne) expressed a fear that the enemies of this prince might
attempt to take Joan from out of the hands of John of Luxembourg.
But we think its agitation was uncalled for. It has been asserted
that any military action was impossible ; no proofs for this, how-
ever, are furnished. In short, the defenders of Charles VII. are
reduced to alleging that if he did nothing, it was doubtless because
there was nothing he could do. A poor apology !

The question has recently been reopened. The Chroniqtu dc
Morosini has been unearthed and is being published in parts by
MM. Germain Lef^vre-Pontalis and L^n Dorez for the SocUU
de tHistoire de France, Vols. i. and ii. have appeared ; vol. iii.
will contain the passages relating to Joan of Arc. It is pretended
that this chronicle bears testimony to efforts made by Charles VII.

JOAN OF ARC

find the slightest authentic evidence of a single step,
military or diplomatic, having been taken or even
attempted by Charles VII. or any of his people, to
save Joan from the fate which awaited her, from the
terrible death which her enemies had sworn to make
her suffer. The weakness and cowardice of the court
are not a sufficient explanation for her abandon-
ment ; the real cause for it should be recognised and
stated, which was — deliberate ingratitude.

Just as the English were ashamed of having been
beaten by a woman, the French, or rather the
courtiers and several of the officers, were ashamed
of having been saved by one. They considered that
the time had come to show the world that they no

to save Joan of Arc. But is this chronicle of much value in
matters concerning Joan's history? It is not really a chronicle
but a journal, the author, or rather compiler, of which resided in
Venice and collected as into a kind of newspaper every report
false or true. He retails many things about Joan which are
monstrously false. Upon the authority of his correspondents in
Bruges (writing on the 14th July 1429) he relates that Joan had
made a formal entry with the king into Rouen and Paris, and
that a general peace had been declared and signed. A little
further on he asserts that Joan of Arc had taken Auxerre (which
she never entered), and had had all the inhabitants over seven
years of age massacred, not even sparing the bishop and his
clergy. Truly the discovery of this precious chronicle throws
fresh light on the story of Joan of Arc ! However, having warned
the reader, I willingly transcribe the passages in which it is
sought to find a vindication of Charles VII. (I have translated
them from the Venetian text published by R. P. Ayroles, La
vraie Jeanne tTArc, vol. iii. p. 660) : —

" As soon as the damsel (donzela) had fallen into the hands of
the Duke of Burgundy, and it was rumoured that the English
would buy her for money, the dauphin having been informed of
it, sent an embassy (to the duke) to tell him that he should not

THE PRISON

longer had, or indeed ever had had, need of her. The
marvellous nature of her coming and of her victories
had begun to weigh upon many ungrateful and many
weak minds. Hearing her called a witch by the
defeated enemy, many began to fear that there
might indeed be some witchcraft mingled with her
power, and so had an uneasy feeling that it would
be prudent to extricate themselves from an alliance
which had become open to suspicion. The populace,
whose hearts she knew how to win, the crowd of
simple folk, soldiers and peasants, would have re-
mained faithful to her and might possibly have pre-
vailed upon the nobles to make some attempt to
rescue her; but their leaders had taken care to

on any account in the world consent (to deliver her up), and that
if he did the king would have his revenge." Further on we read
— "Through several letters arrived from Bruges the news has
reached Venice that the virtuous damsel has been imprisoned
near Rouen by the English, who have paid ten thousand crowns
for her. Her imprisonment was very strict, and two or three
times the English wished to have her burned as a heretic. But
the Dauphin of France stopped them by great threats. Notwith-
standing this, on the third occasion the English, assisted by certain
of the French and blinded by their hatred, had her burned at
Rouen. Before her martyrdom she appeared most contrite,
resigned and well disposed. St Catherine the Virgin appeared
to her saying, 'Daughter of God, be firm in the faith. Thou
shalt be in glory in Paradise among the virgins.' She died filled
with contrition. The Dauphin of France mourned her bitterly
and planned to have a terrible revenge upon the English and the
women of England."

It is for the reader to judge if this Venetian tale is sufficient to
vindicate the memory of Charles VII. in the absence of all other
evidence of any intervention whatever. It matters little to us
*' what was said " in Venice or elsewhere ; we would like to know

what he did ** ; he did nothing.

JOAN OP ARC

delude them and had taught them ingratitude, not
only by setting a personal example of it, but by
daring, in order to justify themselves, to make an
accomplice of the Almighty.

They loudly proclaimed that Joan had ceased to
be the chosen instrument of God for the salvatjon
of Prance, and that another would replace faer in
this character, who would be more acceptable in the
sight of heaven, because he would guard himself
more rigorously from pride. Regnault de Chartres,
Archbishop of Rheims and Chancellor of Prance,
wrote a letter to his flock, informing them of the
capture of the Maid, and at the same tune bidding
them not to be too much afflicted. God was punish-
iag her justly. *'She would believe no one, but
ever followed her own wishes." Besides, she had
already been replaced. " A young herdsman from the
G^vaudan mountains in the bishopric of Mende had
come to the king, and said to him neither more nor
less than Joan the Maid had said: that he was
commanded by God to accompany the king's troops,
and that the English and the Burgundians would
without fail be discomfited. . . . God had permitted
Joan the Maid to be captured because she was
consumed with pride, because of the rich garments
she had worn, and because she had not done what
God had commanded her, but had followed her own
inclinations." ^

If those whom Joan had saved, on whose behalf

* This poor little shepherd did not survive Joan. Captured by
the English in August 143 1, between Beauvais and Goumay, he
was, it is believed, thrown into the Seine.

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THE PRISON

she had fought, and for whom she was about to die,
seem to have been unmoved at the news of her
capture, her enemies on the contrary were filled
with a fierce sensation of joy at hearing that she
was in their power. As early as the 26th May
(two days after the battle before Compi^gne) the
Vicar General of the Inquisition at Paris and the
Paris University demanded that the prisoner should
be handed over to the Church as a heretic or even
an idolatress. On the 14th July, the University
summoned John of Luxembourg to surrender his
prisoner to the King of Prance and of England."
Oa the 21st November, the surrender faavi^
been madfe (i& exchange for ready money, as will be
seen further on), the University cspop'atiifated King
Henry on having got possession of this dangerous
enemy of the Christian faith, and asked that the
Bishop of Beauvais should establish his court of
justice in Paris where so many learned doctors
would form an incomparable body of judges. On
the same day they wrote an angry letter to Cauchon,
blaming his delay. It is quite possible that Cauchon
may have had this letter written to him by ac-
complices in Paris, but at all events the letter is
genuine, and the responsibility of it remains with
those who signed it.

All these documents are filled with such hatred of
Joan of Arc that one wonders in reading them what
personal injury the humble maiden could have done
to these learned men. They were injured because
she had baffled and set at naught their learning, and
because, on the day when she attacked Paris, she

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JOAN OP ARC

had made them tremble for fear lest they should
lose their feudal rights, for they nearly all belonged
to the English and Burgundian party. They de-
spised her because they did not understand her, and
they hated her because, while despising her, they
also feared her. These were the sentiments current
in Paris in what may be called the official world.
Por having presumed to take Joan's part, for having
dared to say that she was good and that what she
did was right and according to God," an unfortunate
Brittany peasant girl was seized, imprisoned, judged,
condemned and burned just as Joan herself was nine
months later.^ Moreover the long duration of the
war seems now to have awakened the native ferocity
of the combatants. It was the period when the
English, after formal judgment, buried alive Nor-
mandy women whose only crime had been to supply
bread to "brigands," that is to say, to soldiers of
the legitimate king.^

But the English, who had their own hatred to
satisfy before troubling themselves about the griev-
ances of the Paris University, and who, even before
the relief of Orleans, had sworn that some day they
would burn Joan of Arc, had no intention of allowing
such a prize to escape them. On the other hand,
it suited them admirably that she should receive her
death sentence from an ecclesiastical court. By
having her condemned as a witch they not only
dishonoured her in the eyes of the people, but they

'^Journal du Bourgeois de Parts.

* Chronique du Mont-Saint- Michel^ published by Simton Luce,
vol. ii. p. 66.

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THE PRISON

also dishonoured Charles VII. who had made use of
her. Moreover, it was no easy matter to dispose
decently of Joan of Arc, a prisoner of war, without
finding some pretext, such as an accusation of heresy.
It was impossible to put her to death because she
had defeated the English; that would have been
contrary to the law of nations, by which they were
only allowed, if they would accept no ransom for
her, to keep her in prison (like the Duke of Orleans),
until peace was restored. A degrading punishment
would satisfy their hatred far better. It was there-
fore decided to involve her in a trial for heresy ; but
the English wished to be able to count upon the
judges, that the result of the trial might be assured.
This was not the case in Paris ; in so large a town
it was always possible that so powerful and famous
a University might, in spite of its being under the
English and Burgundian yoke, retain or recover
sufficient independence to refuse a death sentence.
Another and a less hazardous plan was immediately
formed, and a man came forward at the opportune
moment to furnish the means for carrying it out
systematically, while disguising all signs of violence
and hatred under a semblance of legality.

This man was Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais,
who, as we have seen, was driven from his episcopal
town on the day when Beauvais surrendered to
Charles VI L and Joan of Arc. Cauchon,^ a creature

^ Cauchon was not only the favourite of the Duke of Burgundy
and the pliable and willing tool of the English, he was also the
idol of the University of Paris, of whom he was one of the agents,
adorned with the title of *' Guardian of the Rights of the

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JOAN OP ARC

of the Duke of Burgundy and the English, had sought
refuge at Rouen, the episcopal throne of which was
then vacant. He was led to believe that he might
fall heir to it, but the Pope refused his consent, and
Cauchon was afterwards forced to content himself
with the bishopric of Lisieux, a meagre compensation
for his dishonoured name.

As Joan of Arc had been captured at Compi^gne,
in the diocese of Beauvais, there was ground for
maintaining that she came under the jurisdiction of
Pierre Cauchon in a case concerning the faith.
Cauchon claimed her; or rather, to save time, he
started by buying her; the essential point was to
hold her prisoner.

Por the English had no claim to her. The legal
position of Joan of Arc, prisoner of war, was this :
she belonged to the bastard of Wandonne, who, with
his own hand or by the hand of one of his archers,
had captured her. The bastard's master, however,
was John of Luxembourg, and therefore it was from
him that she would have to be bought. Cauchon
repaired in person to the camp outside Compi^gne
on the 14th July, and offered in the name of the
King of England 6000 francs, besides 10,000 to John
of Luxembourg, and an annuity of two or three

University." As early as 141 9 the University recommended him
to the Pope as one who might be allowed, as an exception to the
rule, to hold a number of benefices, on the ground that " those
who have given proof of courage and perseverance in labours,
watches, sufferings and torments for the good of the Church, are
also worthy of the greatest rewards." In 1420 the University
warmly recommended him to the Chapter and people of Beauvais
for the episcopal see of that town.

THE PRISON

hundred francs to the bastard of Wandonne. In
1430, 10,000 francs was equivalent to about 84,000
francs at the present day, intrinsic value ; but if we
take into account the decrease in the purchasing
value of precious metals (which is six or seven times
lower in 1900 than it was in 1400), the sum for
which Joan was sold to the English may be esti-
mated at 550,000 francs.

The prisoner, who at first had been detained for a
few days before Compi^gne, was carried ofP to the
Castle of Beaulieu near Noyon,^ where she was im-
prisoned during June and July, and from thence to
the Castle of Beaurevoir,^ where she remained until
November. Her imprisonment was humane at first ;
but her one idea was to escape and fly to the rescue
of besieged Compi^gne. At Beaulieu she nearly
escaped by locking up her gaolers in the tower
where she was imprisoned ; she was, however, re-
captured by the gate-keeper of the castle. After
this John of Luxembourg sent her to Beaurevoir
where she would be more strictly guarded. His
wife and one of his aunts inhabited the castle and
treated the prisoner with kindness. It is indeed a
noticeable fact that no woman was ever lacking in
respect or deference towards Joan of Arc, not even
the Duchess of Bedford, who forbade her English
guards to maltreat or insult her. The ladies at
Beaurevoir offered her some women's clothes, for
she was still wearing her military costume, but she
refused them, saying, " The time has not yet come."

^ Three leagues from Noyon, on the Amiens road.

' Near Le Catelet, on the road from Saint-Quentin to Cambrai.

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JOAN OP ARC

A knight belonging to the English party, one
Haimond de Macy, saw Joan at Beaurevoir, and his
evidence is of interest. He confesses that he sought
to ingratiate himself by accosting her in a somewhat
disrespectful manner. She repulsed him in such a
way that he did not dare make a second attempt.
Like many others, he is struck by the extraordinary
propriety and dignity of her speech and gesture.
He saw her again at Rouen some time afterwards,
and offered her his services in trying to get her
ransomed and liberated, on condition that she never
fought against the English again. You have
neither the desire nor the power," she replied, " to
have me ransomed. I am perfectly aware that the
English will kill me, hoping to conquer the kingdom
of France after my death. But were there a hundred
thousand * Godons ' more than there are at present,
they would not get the kingdom." Upon hearing
these words Stafford sprang towards her in a
threatening attitude, as if he would like to kill
her; but Warwick dragged him back.

At Beaurevoir, Joan was guilty of the one fault it
has been possible to discover in her life of unsullied
innocence ; but it is right that we should thoroughly
understand all the circumstances which go to excuse
and explain the desperate act she committed, when
she leaped from the tower in which she was im-
prisoned.^ She knew Compi^gne to be in dire straits
and upon the point of falling ; and in the gloom of
her solitary prison she pictured the town which had

^ The principal tower of a castle of this importance could not
be less than fifty or sixty feet high.

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THE PRISON

been so loyal to its king destroyed and pillaged, and
its inhabitants massacred. A yearning to go to their
assistance beset her. Her voices forbade her to
take the leap, and St Catherine assured her that
Compi^gne would be saved. She disobeyed the
voices and threw herself over, commending herself
to God. She remained motionless and unconscious
on the spot where she had fallen, and was with
great difficulty revived. No limbs were broken, but
the fall brought on a violent fever. She recovered
in the course of a few days, acknowledged her sin,
and made confession of it with great humility. She
always denied that she had wished for a single moment
to kill herself, or had even allowed the idea of suicide
to enter her mind. She wanted to go to the rescue
of Compi^gne, and had hoped, in spite of the voices
(therein lay her sin, as she confessed), that God and
the angels would support her as she fell. The voices
forgave her, and assured her that God had pardoned
her also, and that he had taken pity upon Compi^gne.
As a matter of fact, the siege of that brave town
was raised on the 26th October. A few days later
John of Luxembourg, having received the promised
ransom, handed Joan over to the English, who took
her to Rouen by slow degrees, passing through Arras,
Dmgyt Le Crotoy, Saint- Valery, Eu and Dieppe on
their way. She arrived in Rouen towards Christmas.

Being under the jurisdiction of the Church, she
ought to have been confined in the prisons of
the ecclesiastical courts. The English, however,
thought otherwise. They preferred to obtain her
death through a sentence passed by the Church;
o"

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JOAN OP ARC

but if the Church were to acquit her, they were
fully resolved (and, as we shall see, they did not
disguise the fact) to make her perish by some other
means. To make quite sure that she should by no
manner of means escape them, they detained her
in their own prisons and placed her in the Castle
of Rouen, under the guard of their own soldiers.
Several judges protested against this, but Cauchon
yielded to the express desire of the English, and
became a party to the illegal act of judging in a
clerical court an accused person confined in a lay
prison. It was one of the iniquities of the trial ; and
the fact that in the prisons of the archbishopric of
Rouen there was a special room set apart for women
and attended to by women, makes it only the more
scandalous.^

The prisoner was at first confined in an iron cage.
At the trial no mention was made of this abominable
deed, but disinterested witnesses affirmed it at the
enquiry held with a view to her rehabilitation. She
was chained by the neck, the hands and the feet.
As soon as the English were convinced of the im-
possibility of her escaping from the castle, which
was guarded by their own soldiers, their hatred
cooled a little, or possibly they were afraid of killing
her by excessive ill-treatment before the time was
ripe for her martyrdom. They contented themselves
after this with chaining her, and removed her from
the cage, probably at the end of a fortnight or three
weeks (at the beginning of the trial, according to

^ Rechirches sur Us prisons de Rouen^ by Robillard de
Beaurepaire.

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THE PRISON

the evidence of Jean Massieu). She was still pretty
strictly confined, and still sufficiently ill-treated to
satisfy the most savage hatred.

Joan of Arc's prison was certainly exceedingly
circumscribed. The only access to it was by a stair-
case of eight steps leading to the room in which she
was confined. Prom a large block of wood solidly
fixed to the wall there hung an iron chain, by which
the prisoner was chained to her bed, and which was
fastened by a padlock. A witness tells us that five
Englishmen, low troopers of the class which in Prance
was known as ** housse-paillers " (that is, houspilleurs),
watched the prisoner closely day and night, and
amused themselves insulting her and loudly ex-
pressing their hopes that she would be condemned
and put to death. In spite of the humane prohibition
issued by the Duchess of Bedford, these outrages,
according to the testimony of several witnesses,
continued up to the very end.

The hatred of the English is but too easily
explained by the impression prevalent among them
that their reverses were due to the spells " of the
Maid. Three years later, Bedford, addressing him-
self in an official document ^ to his nephew the king,
still attributed to this accursed enemy the decline of
the good fortune the English had so long enjoyed
upon the continent. Everything prospered for
you in Prance until the siege of Orleans. Then
there fell, by the hand of God, it seems to me, a
terrible blow. We committed the error of believing

^ The English text is published by R. P. Ayroles, La vraie
Jeanne tTArc^ vol. iii. p. 642.

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100

JOAN OP ARC

in a disciple of Satan's, an imp of Hell, called Joan
the Maid, and of fearing her. She employed criminal
enchantments and sorceries; and it was owing to
these practices that the number of your partisans
diminished, the courage of those which remained to
you disappeared, while the valour and number of
your adversaries increased."

This ofBcial testimony written in cold blood and
long after the event throws a striking light upon the
sentiments which even the most enlightened English-
men entertained for Joan of Arc. They did not deny
her power, for they had felt the marvellous effects
of it only too well. But since this power was work-
ing against them and putting an end to their luck, it
soothed their pride to believe that only the devil
was willing and able to injure England. They con-
verted their enemy, who had long been too successful,
into a witch. The wise and the sceptics, if there
were any among them, could either reconcile them-
selves to this opinion, or make pretence of doing
so. It served the schemes of all. The death of the
"witch" would restore confidence to the English
soldiers. Her condemnation compromised Charles
VI I. as an accomplice of this devil's emissary, and
one whose ends had been served by her " spells," and
introduced an element of discord, of trouble, or at
least of anxiety into the minds of the French. At
the sight of Joan of Arc's defeat and humiliation,
these weak souls no longer knew how to regard even
her victories. Every heart began to doubt whether,
after all, there had not been some witchcraft, or, it
may be, some mere chance or deception in what she

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THE PRISON

101

had done. And shortly afterwards, when her im-
placable enemies fell upon her, her friends, em-
barrassed and confused, took refuge in a cowardly
silence, as if they were thinking to themselves : let
God save her, if He sent her.^

^ It was probably this weak and ignoble sentiment which
prevented Charles VII. from appealing to the Pope on the
prisoner's behalf. Nothing would have been more natural when
one of his subjects was being tried for heresy. The king did not
dare because he was afraid of being called the accomplice and
abettor of a vritch.

CHAPTER VII

THB TRIAL — ^THE PUBLIC HEARING

JOAN was imprisoned in the Castle of Rouen. This
did not give the Bishop of Beauvais any legal
right to judge her in a diocese which was not his own.
It was necessary by some legal fiction to delegate
jurisdiction to him at Rouen so that he might seem
to be sitting in his own diocese. Throughout the
entire trial we are struck by the same observance
of ''forms'* joined to a flagrant disregard of right
and justice. The Episcopal See of Rouen being
vacant, the chapter which exercised the powers of
the Ordinary, did not hesitate to arrange this fiction,
which was the first necessary act in the great trial
which was about to begin (28th December 1430).

On the 3rd January 1431, King Henry ^ com-
manded that the proceedings should begin. He
handed the matter over to the clergy, being careful
to mention that if they acquitted Joan on questions
concerning the faith, it was his intention to take
back and regain possession of the said Joan." ^ It

^ It must be remembered that he was only ten years old. His
uncle Bedford, the Regent, governed in his name.

* The responsibility for this letter does not rest upon the child
of ten who signed it, but upon his counsellors ; it is a masterpiece
of hypocrisy. King Henry sends Joan of Arc for trial, being re-

zoa

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THE TRIAL— THE PUBLIC HEARING 103

is difiBcult to deny that from this hour the death of
the Maid had been determined upon by the English.
If, however, the charge of heresy and witchcraft
should be dismissed, it was not easy, as we have
already pointed out, legally to condemn a prisoner
of war for a crime of which every soldier belonging
to Charles VII. was guilty. The English, therefore,
at the risk of somewhat delaying their revenge,
decided to begin by leaving the matter in the hands
of the ecclesiastical tribunal ; but at the same time
they insinuated to the judges that they should be
careful to abstain from any clemency towards Joan,
for their clemency would be of no avail.

The proceedings against Joan of Arc were
opened on the 9th January 1431. The bishop first
summoned eight eminent personages, namely, the
abbots of Fecamp and Jumi^ges, one of whom was
a doctor of divinity, the other a doctor of canon law ;
the prior of Longueville, doctor of divinity; the
treasurer of the Cathedral, a doctor of both laws ;
and four canons. He took counsel upon the course
to pursue^ chose as prosecutor an absolutely devoted
and thoroughly trustworthy tool of his own, one Jean
d'Estivet, canon of Beauvais, and appointed two re-
corders, chosen from among the priests of Rouen,

quired to do so by the Reverend Father in God, the Bishop of
Beauvais, and exhorted thereto by "our very dear and well be-
loved daughter the University of Paris," purely from motives of
zeal towards the Church and out of obedience to its orders. But
still, '*it is our intention to retake and regain possession of the
said Joan in the event of her not being convicted and accused
of the above mentioned offences," blasphemy, heresy, schism,
etc.

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104

JOAN OF ARC

and an usher. On the 13th January the Court ^
examined reports based upon enquiries which had
been made about Joan at Domremy and elsewhere.
It may easily be imagined in what a prejudiced
manner these enquiries had been conducted. One
witness, Nicolas Bailley, a notary, who was one of
the informers, subsequently stated (at the case for
rehabilitation) that, having brought from Domremy
evidence favourable to Joan of Arc, he found himself
treated at Rouen as a "false Armagnac." These
reports, moreover, were neither submitted to the
accused nor produced at the trial; which would
lead one to suppose that after all they were entirely
in her favour.

Did Cauchon's avowed partiality go so far as to
falsify the ofBcial reports of the case published
under his auspices ? He has been stoutly accused
of having done so, and therefore it is important for
us in these pages to settle definitely so vital a point.
Our whole knowledge of the trial certainly hangs
upon these records. Are they veracious? We
believe them to be so. It is true that at the re-
habilitation trial a witness called Manchon, who had

^ One hundred and thirteen judges in all appeared during the
trial, but they never sat all at once. The number of judges present
never exceeded sixty. This manner of forming judgment of a case
without having followed all its phases had many drawbacks, but
was, however, customary. Nicolas Midy, the most assiduous of
the judges, sat thirty-seven times, but thirty-one of them only sat
once. More than eighty of the hundred and thirty were function-
aries of the University of Paris. See Le Prods cU Jeanne ctArc et
tUniversiU dc Paris^ by le P. H. Denifle and Em. Chatelain,
Paris, 1897, 8vo.

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THE TRIAL—THE PUBLIC HEARING 105

acted as clerk or recorder at the first trial, formally
accused Cauchon of having tried to falsify the
reports, and alleged upon this point that clerks who
were confederates had been concealed^ behind a
curtain with orders to insert into the case fictitious
answers ruinous to the accused. The official
documents bear no evidence of such tampering;
they are consistent with one another and are to all
appearances correct. It is possible that Cauchon
may have wished to reserve a complete report of
the trial for his own use, and that this gave rise to
those malicious rumours, for which it does not seem
to us there is much foundation. The recorder
Manchon declared, moreover, that he had refused
to countenance such manoeuvres and that he had
banished the intruding clerks; he further certified
that the official report signed by him was absolutely
genuine, and contained nothing which was not true
" according to the best of his knowledge and belief.*'
In short, whatever may have been Cauchon's secret
intentions, I do not consider that we have any reason
for doubting the honesty of the official reports.^ Be-
sides, having found nothing in them which does not
tend entirely to Joan of Arc's credit and loudly pro-

^ At the trial for rehabilitation Pierre Miget, one of the judges,
admitted the fact of the hidden reporters ; but he failed to see
the object of it, for, said he, the official reporters were honest.
That is all that matters to us.

' The minutes of the case were originally written in French by
the two notaries Manchon and Boisguillaume, and subsequently
translated into Latin, long after the trial, by Manchon himself and
Thomas de Courcelles. We possess a part only of the original
report in French, but we have the whole of the Latin translation.

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106

JOAN OF ARC

daim her innocence and virtue, I confess I cannot dis-
cover any positive evidence of the falsifications which
have heen somewhat vaguely imputed to her judges.

Joan appeared before them for the first time on
Wednesday the 21st February in the chapel of
the castle at 8 o'clock in the morning. Cauchon
presided, and was assisted by forty-two judges,
among whom were seven doctors and two bachelors
of divinity, two doctors of canon or civil law, and
thirteen licentiates. The Vicar of the Inquisition
of France refused to attend, under the pretext that
his authority extended only over Normandy, and
that the case which was being actually judged at
Rouen was being constructively judged at Beauvais.
Thus did Cauchon's wily reasonings turn against
himself. Before the case was finished, however,
the Inquisitor consented to appear. Had he per-
sisted in his refusal his absence would have rendered
Joan's condemnation far more difficult.

Upon the eve of the first hearing Jean Massieu,
a priest who was acting as usher, summoned the
prisoner to appear. Joan replied that she was quite
ready to do so and to speak the truth concerning
the faith." She requested the favour of being
allowed to attend Mass before the hearing, but the
court refused to accord her this indulgence because
of the accusation of heresy which was hanging
over her, and because of the "monstrous dress"
(difformitate habitus) she persisted in wearing.

The way from the prison to the court-house led
past the chapel. Joan begged to be allowed to stop
a moment so as to kneel down before the chapel

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THE TRIAL— THE PUBLIC HEARING 107

door and pray. Jean Massieu consented, but when
Cauchon ^ heard of it he blamed the usher severely,
and forbade his ever doing such a thing again.

When Joan of Arc was brought before the judges
the president requested her to speak the entire truth
without trying to screen herself by evasions or
cunning answers. Her reply is remarkable, and
explains certain obscurities in the language she used
later on in the trial.

" I do not know," she said, " upon what you wish to
question me. It may be that you will ask me some-
thing that I cannot tell you. About my father and
my mother, and about everything that I have done
since my arrival in France, I swear to answer freely.
But about the revelations I have had from God, I
have never said or revealed anything except to King
Charles only, and I will reveal nothing, though it
cost me my head." She had, she said, been for-
bidden by her ** counsel " to speak upon these things.
She added that in the course of eight days she would
be quite certain as to what she should be silent about
and what she should reveal ; her " voices " would have
instructed her. But to any question concerning her
faith she would answer willingly and speak the entire
truth. Kneeling upon her knees, her two hands laid
upon the Gospels, she swore to do this. She then
proceeded to give the judges an account of her birth
and early years. But she refused to recite the Lord's
prayer to Cauchon, adding : " I will say it to you if
you will hear me — ^but in confession." It was perhaps

^ According to another witness it was d'Estivet, the prosecutor,
who reviled Jean Massieu.

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108

JOAN OF ARC

because Cauchon feared in this way to hear a con-
fession which he would not afterwards be able to
use against her, that he was cautious and refused to
confess her. He ended by warning her not to make
any attempt to escape. She replied, " I do not
accept that warning. If I escape, let no one accuse
me of having broken my word, for I have given it to
no one." She complained of being in chains, and
having irons on her feet. " It is to keep you more
securely," said Cauchon, " for you have several times
tried to escape." " It is true," she replied, " I have
tried to escape ; I would try again ; it is the right
of every prisoner to try and escape."

Even at this first examination we notice in the
prisoner a heroic determination not to accuse any*
one, not to throw upon anyone else the responsibility
for the things which might justly or unjustly be im-
puted to her. It is true that such a course was
consistent with the declaration she had made of
having always acted in obedience to the heavenly
voices which guided her; but we should none the
less admire the courageous resolution she made and
kept until the day of her death, never to let fall a
single word of recrimination against the traitors and
ingrates who, by abandoning or deliberately opposing
her, had at last brought her where she was. She
did not even mention La Tr^moille or Regnault de
Chartres, and she mentioned only to bless the king
who had deserted her.^

^ Joan appeared without an advocate. As a general rule, in
cases before the Inquisition, the accused person had no advocate,
though in the case of a minor he had at least a curator. Accord-

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THE TRIAL— THE PUBLIC HEARING 109

The second hearing^ took place upon the following
morning (Thursday the 22nd), not in the chapel this
time, but in a room adjoining the great hall of the
castle. The number of judges had increased to
fifty, fifteen of whom were doctors of divinity, five
doctors of civil and canon law, and one a doctor of
medicine. It was quite a university which assembled
to condemn the unhappy Joan. "You overwhelm
me," she said {nimium oneratis me). Jean Beaup^re,
professor of divinity and former head of the Paris
University, conducted the examination with much
skill. The matter was a grave and delicate one ; she
was requested to give an explanation of her voices.
She would not lie, yet she would not tell them all.
She briefly described her first visions : The voice
was good, the voice came from God ; it has protected
me well, and I understood it. It bid me lead a good
life and be regular at church. It told me that I
must go to Prance ; that I could no longer remain
where I was ; that I must go to Prance to raise the
siege of Orleans. It repeated this to me two or
three times a week. It told me to gq and find
Robert de Baudricourt, Governor of Vaucouleurs, and

ing to Massieu, the usher, who must have been well informed,
Joan asked for a "counsel" ad respondendum, quod diceret se
esse simplicem. The counsel was refused, and Cauchon said to
her : " You will answer for yourself." Later, when the examina-
tions were finished, he ofilered to appoint a counsel for her, and it
was then she who refiised, saying : « The counsel of my Lord is
sufficient for me," meaning the counsel of God.

^ According to the statement of one of the witnesses, Guillaume
Manchon, the first sitting had been exceedingly stormy. The
sittings lasted as a rule from eight in the morning until deven.

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JOAN OF ARC

that he would give me an escort. I replied : ' I am
a poor girl and do not know how to ride or to fight.' "
She then told them of her adventures, of the long
delay and the discouragements patiently endured.
" At last Robert de Baudricourt gave his consent and
allowed me to start, saying, * Go, then, whatever may
betide.' The voice had told me that it would all
happen thus."

She described her journey, her arrival at Chinon,
her first interview with the king whom she recognised,
or rather divined, her voices pointing him out to her.
But what her judges especially wished to know was
what she had said privately to the king, and what
secret she had revealed to gain his confidence. On
this point they were never able to extract any state-
ment from her. Anything which even touched upon
her relations with Charles VII. remained shrouded
in mystery in the answers she made to their repeated
questions. " When the voice pointed out your king
to you, was there any light in the room ? " " Pass
on to something else." ^ " Did you see an angel
hovering over your king ? " " Spare me. Pass on
to something else." She declared, however, that
before the king employed her in the work she had
seen many apparitions and had had many wonder-
ful revelations. " What apparitions ? What revela-
tions?" asked the judge. I will not tell you what
they were. Send to the king, he will tell you. . . .
Not a day passes that I do not hear this voice. I
have never asked of it any other reward than the
salvation of my soul. The voice bade me remain at
^ Passcz outre*

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St Denis, in Prance, and I would fain have stayed
there, but the leaders dragged me away against my
will. If I had not been wounded I should have
stopped there, but I was wounded in the trenches
near Paris." She owned to having directed the
attack upon Paris. " It was a Saint's day," said the
judge. " I believe so." " Was it right to fight upon
a Saint's day ? " ^* Pass on to something else."

Two days later (the 24th February) there was a
third hearing at which sixty judges were present.
When Joan was requested for the third time to
swear that she would speak the entire truth without
reservation or condition, she replied: "Grant me
permission to speak. By my faith, you might ask
me such questions that I should not be able to speak
the truth, for instance, concerning the revelations ;
for perchance you might force me to tell what I have
sworn not to tell, and thus I should be perjured,
which you ought not to desire. I tell you to weigh
well your words when you say that you are my
judge. You are taking upon yourself a heavy re-
sponsibility and you overwhelm me. I have twice
taken my oath, that is sufficient." This painful
scene lasted a long time. They finally extracted
this oath from her : ** I swear to speak the truth
about those things which I know and which touch
the case."

Jean Beaup^re conducted the examination. "When
did you last eatand drink ? " " Yesterday afternoon."
"When did you hear your voices?" "Yesterday
and to-day." " At what time yesterday ? " " Three
times : in the morning, at the hour of vespers, and in

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JOAN OF ARC

the evening at the Ave Maria, There are many
days when I hear them more frequently." "What
were you doing yesterday morning when the voice
came to you ? " "I was sleeping, the voice awoke
me." "The voice awoke you by touching you on
the arm ? " " The voice awoke me without touching
me." " Was the voice in the room ? " "I do not
know, but it was in the castle." " Did you give
thanks to the voice on bended knee ? " "I thanked
it sitting in my bed with clasped hands, after having
prayed for help. The voice bade me answer without
fear, for God would help me."

At this point Joan broke ofiP, and, turning towards
Cauchon, said to him : " You call yourself my judge ;
beware of what you do, for truly I am sent by God,
and you are putting yourself in great danger I "

The examination was then resumed. "Did the
voice forbid you to divulge everything ? " " That is
a question I will not answer. I have revelations
concerning the king which I will not tell you. . . •
I am more afraid of erring by saying something
which might displease those voices than I am afraid
of answering you." " Do you think it is displeasing
to God to tell the truth ? " " The voices bade me say
certain things to the king, but not to you. This
very night, they told me many things for the king's
benefit. I would that he knew them, were I to taste
no more wine until Easter. But if the king knew
these things would he dine more cheerfully?"
" Joan, are you in a state of grace ? " " If I am not,
may God put me in one ; if 1 am, may God keep me
there. I should be the most unhappy woman in the

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world if I knew myself not to be in a state of grace.
But if I were in mortal sin, the voice would not
come to me." The question was so palpably unfair
that one of the judges was bold enough to say —
" She is not bound to answer." " Hold your tongue,"
shouted Cauchon furiously I ^

They tormented her with questions concerning the
" Fairy Tree," where, as a little girl, she used some-
times to go and dance with other children of her
own age. They would fain have made this childish
act a pretext for accusing her of idolatry or at least
of pagan superstitions. They were, however, unable
to manage this. They then fell back upon her
masculine attire, that cause of offence which was to
survive all the others and was finally to ruin her.
" Joan, would you like a woman's dress ? " " Give
me one; I will gladly take it, if I may go away
from here ; if not, I will not take it. I am content
with this, since it pleases God that I should wear it."

The fourth hearing was on Tuesday the 27th
February. Jean Beaup&re cross-questioned the
prisoner, and either from curiosity or from a desire
to elicit some imprudent answer which might give
a foundation for the accusation of heresy, he greatly
increased the questions about the apparitions. He
first affected a tone of easy good nature. "Joan,
how have you been since Saturday?" "You can
see for yourself, as well as possible." " Do you fast
every day this Lent ? " " Does that bear upon the

^ Had she said yes, she would have been accused of pride ; had
she said no, it would have been equivalent to acknowledge the
crimes imputed to her.

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case ? " " Yes, certainly," ** Well then, I have fasted
diligently this Lent." Have you heard the voice
since Saturday ? " «« Yes indeed, many times." " On
Saturday, in this hall where you are heing examined,
did you hear the voice ? " "1 heard it I " " What did
it say to you ? " "I did not quite understand it until
I had returned to my room." "What did it say
to you then?" "To answer fearlessly. I asked
counsel about the questions which are put to me.
I will gladly tell you what God has permitted me
to reveal ; but as to the revelations which concern
the King of Prance, I will say nothing without per-
mission from the voice." " Was it the voice of an
angel which spoke to you, or of a saint, or the voice of
God Himself, without any intermediary ? " " It was
the voice of St Catherine and St Margaret. Their
brows are crowned with beautiful crowns, most
rich and precious. God allows me to say that
much. If you doubt my words, send to Poitiers
where 1 was examined before." " But how do you
know they are those two saints? How do you
distinguish them ? " I know it is they, and I
distinguish them." "But how?" "By the way
they greet me. It is fully seven ^ years since they
undertook to direct me. I know them because they
have told me who they are." "Are they dressed
alike?" "I will say no more on the subject; I have
no permission to. If you do not believe me, go to
Poitiers." "What apparition did you see first?"
" Saint Michael. He was not alone, but surrounded

^ Six years, in point of fact ; the first vision was in the summer
of 1425.

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by many angels." <*You saw them bodily and
actually ? " "I saw them with my bodily eyes, as
well as I see you, and when they vanished I wept
and would fain that they had taken me with them."
"What did St Michael look like?" <M must not
say."

They then proceeded to question her about the
sword of St Catherine de Fierbois. They wished to
prove that the sword was enchanted, but the candour
and simplicity of Joan's answers dispelled such a
suspicion. The voices told me that the sword was
buried in the earth, covered with rust and marked
with five crosses." **What benediction did you
pronounce or cause to be pronounced upon the
sword?" " I did not pronounce any nor cause any
to be pronounced. I should not have known how to
bless it. I was very fond of it because it had been
found in the Church of St Catherine, of whom I
was very fond." " Did you not sometimes lay it
upon the altar to bring you luck ? " " Not that I
am aware of." "Did you have it when you were
captured ? " " No, I had a sword which had been
taken from a Burgundian ; the other I had at Lagny,^
but after Lagny I wore the Burgundian's sword,
because it was a good fighting sword, useful for
dealing heavy thumps and blows" (de bonnes buffes
et de bons torchons).^ "Where did you leave the
other sword?" "That has no bearing upon the

* See above, p. 74, n, ; according to the testimony of the Duke
of Alen9on, it was at St Denis that she broke St Catherine's
sword.

^ In French in the text of the original report of the trial.

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JOAN OF ARC

case." "When you arrived at Orieans had you a
standard, and of what colour was it ? " "A standard,
the ground of which was covered with fleur-de-
lis; the world was depicted upon it, and on the
sides two angels. It was of white linen or a kind
of fustian^ and fringed with silk. The names of
Jesus and of Mary were inscribed upon it." " Which
do you love most, the sword or the standard ? " "I
love the standard many times, forty times, more
than the sword." "Who ordered the painting to
be made upon the standard?" "I have told you
often enough that I did nothing except by the
command of God. I bore the standard when I
attacked the enemy, so as to avoid slaying anyone,
and I have never slain a man."

The fifth hearing opened on the 1st March.
It was upon this occasion that Joan uttered the
following remarkable words, authentically recorded
in the official report of the trial: — "Before seven
years are over, the English will have paid a greater
forfeit than they did at Orleans.^ They will lose
everything in France through a great victory which
God will send the French. This I know because of
a revelation which has been made to me ; I know it as
surely as I know that you are before me at this
moment." "When will this come to pass?" "1
know neither the day nor the hour."

They returned to the apparitions, which in the
eyes of the judges were the most vital point of the

^ Boncassin.

^ Dimittent majus vadium. Charles VII. made his formal
entrance into Paris on the 12th November 1437.

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case. How do you know that what appears to
you is a man or a woman ? " "I know them by the
voice." "What do you see appearing?" "The
face." " Have the female saints hair ? " " What a
question I Yes." " Is there anything between their
hair and their crowns ? " " No." " Is their hair
long and flowing ? " " I do not know." " Have
they arms or other limbs ? " "I do not know, but
they speak plainly and in beautiful language and I
understood them perfectly." " How did they speak
if they have no bodies ? " "I leave that to God.
Their voices are beautiful, soft and kind ; they speak
in French." " Does not St Margaret speak English ? "
" How should she speak English since she is not on
the side of the English I " " Do they wear earrings ?"
" I do not know at all." " What promises did they
make to you?" "That my king should be rein-
stated in his kingdom (whether his enemies wish it
or not) ; they also promised to lead me to Paradise,
as I asked them to." " How did St Michael look
when he appeared to you ? " "I did not see that he
wore a crown." " What garments ? " "I do not
know?" "Was he naked?" "Think you that
God has not the wherewithal to clothe him ? "
" Had he hair ? " " Why should his hair have been
cut ? But I have not seen him since I was at the
Castle of Crotoy.^ I do not see him very often."

They made a point of trying to confuse her by
the number, irrelevancy and incoherence of their
questions. At times the judges questioned her all

^ Where she lodged when they brought her from Beaurevoir to
Rouen.

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JOAN OP ARC

together, intermingling their queries without waiting
for an answer. Upon several occasions she was
obliged to say to them, " Good, my lords, speak one
at a time." At the sixth hearing, on the 3rd
March, she was questioned upon every conceivable
matter. They adjured her to put aside her masculine
attire. " The time has not yet come," she said.

They asked her whether she had not said that
escutcheons made in the likeness of her own were
lucky ?

" No ; I said to our men, * Force your way fear-
lessly among the English.' And I went myself."

They asked her about Friar Richard, the Franciscan
preacher who had attached himself to her since the
entry into Troyes. She laughingly reminded them
of the episode which has been mentioned above;
how "the people of Troyes, doubting whether I
came from God, sent the Friar out to meet me;
he approached, making the sign of the cross and
sprinkling holy water. ' Approach fearlessly,' I said
to him, * 1 shall not fly away.' "

This is an instance of the good humour and arch
simplicity which she constantly exhibited throughout
her life and even during the miseries of her trial.
Joan of Arc belongs to a race and a country wherein
naivete is not incompatible with a certain shrewdness
and a touch of irony. She was bom twelve miles at
the most from the Castle of Joinville (whose worthy
lord had, of old, so well exemplified the wit of the
province of Champagne), and Jacques d'Arc, her
father, had come to Domremy from the very heart
of Champagne. But that this uneducated and

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ignorant peasant girl of nineteen, depressed by her
chains and her forsaken condition, should have been
abb to retain this alertness of mind, standing alone
before fifty solemn, scowling, hostile doctors, seems
scarcely less astounding than her victories. During
the ttial she astonished everyone and frequently
embarrassed her enemies by the aptness, decision
and clearness of her answers.

Besides her good sense and her quickness at
grasping a point we cannot but admire her extra-
ordinarr memory. In that maze of unconnected
and inoDherent questions, she never once contra-
dicted herself. ^* I said so and so," she replied one
day ; and when Boisguillaume, one of the clerks of
the coutt, contradicted her, she insisted, saying.

Look among your papers I " He made a careful
search and found her statement. She was delighted
and said to the clerk, "Do not make any more
mistakes like that, or I will pull your ears.*' I have
taken this outburst from the evidence of Pierre
Daron, deputy of the bailiff of Rouen, but I would
not like to vouch for the exact wording, so different
is it from her ordinary manner, which oftentimes was
familiar and sometimes mocking, but never out of
place.

Her judges pretended to believe that she had
wished to make people worship her. " Did you
order any image made in your likeness? Have
you ever seen such a one ? " I saw at Arras a
picture painted by a Scotchman, in which I was
represented clad in armour, kneeling upon one Imee
before the king, to whom I was handing a letter. I

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JOAN OF ARC

hshre never seen any other portrait of myself, lor
have I ever had one made." " Did not your followers
have services and masses celebrated and prayerssaid
in your honour ? " "I do not know. If the^ did,
it was not at my request. If they prayed for me, I
see no harm in it." " They believe you to haTC been
sent by God ? " "I do not know whether they believe
it, but whether they believe it or not, I am sent by
God I" "In what spirit did they kiss yoar feet,
your hands and your garments?" "Many folk had
pleasure in seeing me ; if they kissed my hands, it
was no oftener than I could help. The ptor came
gladly to me because I did not trouble fhem but
loved to succour them." They tried to represent in
a suspicious light her interview with Catherine de la
Rochelle, the adventuress who pretended to have
seen apparitions. " What did you say to her ? " "I
told her to return to her husband's home, to mind
the house and feed the children. My saints had
warned me that she was a mad- woman."

They tormented her unmercifully about the only
fault she had ever committed, namely, the leap at
Beaurevoir, for which there were extenuating circum-
stances. " I had been in that prison four months.
I was told that the English were approaching. My
voices forbade me to leap, but I was afraid of the
English; commending myself to God and to our
Lady, I took the leap; I was wounded, but Saint
Catherine comforted me and told me I should
recover I " " Did you not, upon seeing yourself re-
captured, give way to rage? Did you not blas-
pheme ? " " Never I and it is not my habit to swear,"

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After the sixth hearing Cauchon stopped the
examination, announcing that it would be resumed
later before a smaller number of judges deputed
for the purpose, and that it would then deal with
all the points it might be deemed advisable to
elucidate. The reason for this step was evident.
Cauchon was afraid that Joan was defending her-
self too well, and that far from intimidating or dis-
concerting her, the solemnity of the scene and the
great concourse of learned men seemed to inspire
her with courage and presence of mind. Her youth,
her helplessness and her loneliness had moved some
of her judges to pity, and this pity might become
contagious. Had not Guillaume Duval and Isambeau
de la Pierre ^ been discovered making signals to the
Maid to show her what it would be to her advantage
to answer ? Warwick had seen them and had shouted
furiously to the monk : " Why should you help this
wretch by making all those signs to her ? Zounds I
villain, if I see you any more trying to free her and
warn her of her interest, I will have you thrown into
the Seine." Guillaume Duval fled in terror to his
monastery.

Before a few carefully chosen judges it would be
possible without too much transgression of the law
to arrange matters so as to bring them to the
desired issue. And when the prosecution should
have been skilfully brought to a close, it would
always be easy among these weak men, who were
either cowed, prejudiced or bribed, to secure a large
majority in favour of condemnation. The business,
^ Evidence of Martin Ladvenu.

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JOAN OF ARC

however, had to be prepared by a select committee.
Six days were spent in drawing up a kind of summary
of the case in order to decide wherein it was still
incomplete and what were the points to be cleared
up before the less numerous tribunal.^

^ It is these delegates entrusted to continue the trial in the prison,
who, with their master, Cauchon, and Jean d'Estivet (Cauchon's
right hand), should bear the principal responsibility for the ini-
quitous crime which was committed in condemning Joan of Arc^
Their names were Jean Beaup^re, Jacques de Touiaine, Nicolas
Midy, Pierre Maurice, Thomas de Courcelles, and Nicolas Loise-
leur. The three first were subsequently sent to Paris to ensure
the official support of the University to the condemnation.
Beaupke, Midy and Maurice were canons of Rouen ; Loiseleur,
a canon of Chartres ; Courcelles, a doctor of Sorbonne, and
Jacques de Touraine, a Minorite friar.

CHAPTER VIII

THE TRIAL (continued) — in the prison
N the morning of the 10th March, Cauchon

^ and five assistants repaired to the Castle to
interrogate Joan of Arc in the little room which
served her as a prison. They pressed her with
questions ** concerning the sign she had shown the
king in order that he should believe in her mission."
At first she refused to answer, but, provoked beyond
endurance, she ended by saying : " An angel sent by
God gave the sign to the king." By degrees, being
more and more severely pressed, she allowed herself,
both at this examination and on the following days,
to be enticed further in this dangerous direction.
Dc^edly resolved (to her honour be it said) never
to give away the king's secret, she wished at any
cost to escape from the importunity of her judges,
and, considering herself justified in presenting an
actual fact under an allegorical form, she finally
described to them her interview with the king by
painting in the most wonderful colours a scene
which had in reality been far more simple. " The
sign was, that the angel, tendering the king a crown,
certified to him that with the help of God and the
efforts of Joan the whole of the kingdom of Prance
iWQuld be his. The crown which the angel brought

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was of fine gold ; it was given to the Archbishop of
Rheims, and is still in the king's treasury. The
angel who brought it entered with it by the door
and was never separated from it." This was an
allegorical account of the interview at Chinon and
the coronation at Rheims. The angel was Joan her-
self, sent by God to win back for the king the
crown of Prance, eventually placed upon the head
of Charles VII. by the Archbishop at Rheims. She
invented this setting as a means of escape from
an importunate question, and to put her judges
o£P the scent by feeding their curiosity with these
imaginary details. No perversion of the truth (how-
ever excusable and innocent) fell readily from her
candid and fearless lips. She played the part badly
and contradicted herself several times, with the result
that her judges soon became aware that she had
trifled with them, and that they regarded in their
hearts as a ground of mortal ofPence.

The Vicar of the Inquisition of France joined the
judges upon the 12th March. Until that date he
had held aloof under the pretext that his authority,
restricted to the diocese of Rouen, did not extend to
that of Beauvais, in which, by a fiction, the trial was
being carried on. His scruples having been removed
by a warrant from the Inquisitor General, he thence-
forth attended the examinations ; but, according to
the testimony of Manchon, the clerk, he took no
keen interest in the matter and always took a
secondary part in a trial which he really should
have conducted. The attitude of the Inquisition
during the trial of Joan of Arc is somewhat obscure

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to us. On the whole it seems to have been rather
favourable to the accused. When Cauchon and
Warwick threatened with death the three judges
who had urged Joan to submit to the Church in
order to save her life,^ the Inquisitor evinced a
desire to withdraw, but his benevolence or his
courage did not go to the length of saving the girl
whom those in power wished to destroy.

Among much repetition, the sole object of which
seems to have been to exhaust the wretched girl, the
examinations conducted in the prison comprised
several remarkable answers, in which her beautiful
soul further revealed itself. " Did you not consider
it a sin to leave your father and mother without
their permission?" "They have forgiven me. I
obeyed them in everything except in leaving them.
God commanded it; had I a hundred fathers and
a hundred mothers, had I been a king's daughter, I
should have gone."

On the 13th March she informed them that her
voices had just said to her: " Take all in good part.
Have no fear of your martyrdom. You will enter
at last into the Kingdom of Heaven." "Do you
then consider that your salvation is assured ? " "I
believe implicitly what my voices tell me." " Do you
then believe that it is impossible for you to commit
a deadly sin ? " "I know nothing about it, I leave
everything in God's hands." " In that case you
have no need of confession ? " " It would be im-
possible to purify one's conscience too much."

^Jean de la Fontaine, Isambard de la Pierre, and Martin
Ladvenu.

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**When you took that leap at Beaurevoir, do you
consider that you did not sin ? " "I believe that I
sinned, but I confessed and have been pardoned;
all the same, I never wished to kill myself? " " Was
it not a deadly sin ? '* **l do not know ; 1 leave it to
God." " How do you know that it is not Satan who
comes to you in the guise of an angel ? " Because
the angel said to me : ' Be a good girl, God will aid
thee. Thou wilt go to the assistance of the King
of France.' And the angel told me of the sorry
plight of the kingdom of France." Then do St
Catherine and St Margaret hate the English?"
"They love what God loves, and hate what He
hates." " Does God hate the English ? " " Of the
love or the hatred which God bears the English I
know nothing ; but full well I know that they shall all
be put out of France except those who shall die there."
" When you went into battle was it you who were of
assistance to your standard or was your standard of
assistance to you ? " " Whether it was the standard
who conquered or whether it was I who conquered
it was all one to Our Lord." " But was the hope of
victory founded upon you or upon the standard ? "

It was founded upon Our Lord and not elsewhere."
" If some other person had carried it, would it have
been so lucky ? " "I do not know. I leave it to
God." " If you were to lose your virginity, would your
voices come to you ? " " That has not been revealed
to me." " If you were married would they still
come ? " "I do not know. I leave that to God."
" Why was your standard carried to the coronation
instead of those of the other leaders ? " " As it had

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shared in the toil, it was just that it should share in
the glory." An answer sublime in its simplicity.
Mark, however, the insidious treachery of every
question: each one was a dilemma in itself, and
whichever of the two alternatives she chose, it was
possible to turn her answer against her. It is
extraordinary how she defeated these quibbles by
sheer force of candour, frankness and common sense.

At the case for rehabilitation all the witnesses
agreed in denouncing the injustice of the examina-
tions to which the accused had been submitted. The
questions were difficult, obscure and subtle, and
were presented in a deceptive and embarrassing
form. According to Pr^re Isambard, **the greatest
scholars and the most learned folk would have
had great difficulty in answering; and many of the
spectators complained of them." Joan complained
too sometimes, but generally found some way of
making a good answer, thanks to her simplicity,"
we say; "thanks to her devilish guile," said her
enemies, who were themselves greatly surprised and
enraged by the aptness of all her answers. "Ah!
she was a mighty cunning woman," declared one of
her judges, Jean de Beaup^re, at the rehabilitation
enquiry. So bitter was his hatred against her, that
twenty-five years after her death he was as fully
convinced as ever of her crimes and seems to have
invariably congratulated himself upon having done a
most pious act in burning such a witch.

They succeeded better in compromising her by
asking her questions which she was incapable of
understanding.^ On the 17th March, they said to

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JOAN OF ARC

her : ** Do you refer all your actions to the decision
of the Church ? " "I refer them to God who sent
me, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to all the saints
of Paradise. It seems to me the same thing — God
or the Church." Their answer to this was to explain
to her the distinction between the Church triumphant,
composed of the saints and the elect, and the Church
militant J whose jurisdiction they were inviting her
to recognise. These long words, however, were un-
familiar to her. It was the first time she had heard
them, and they conveyed nothing to her ; failing to
understand them, she made an ambiguous answer
which was afterwards used against her. This sixth
examination, which took place in the prison on the
17th March, was the last; no doubt Cauchon and
his assistant judges had found it not unproductive
of result. The following day, the 18th March, was
Passion Sunday.

On Palm Sunday, the 25th March, they offered
to allow her to attend Mass and receive the paschal
sacrament, on condition that she wore woman's
clothes. This, although protesting her ardent desire
to hear Mass and partake of the body of her Lord,
she refused to do. "For," she said, "it is not
yet possible for me to put on woman's cloth-
ing." Her obstinacy upon this point surprised her
judges, shocked most of them exceedingly, and was
probably understood only by a very few. Posterity
at all events should not misunderstand the motives
for such obduracy. Thrown without defence upon
the mercy of rough men who were her bitter
enemies, this unhappy girl of nineteen was a prey

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THE TRIAL— IN THE PRISON 129

to mortal terror, fearing what was worse than death
itself. It seemed to her that while she wore this
soldier's dress her virtue was exposed to less risk;
that a woman dressed like a man is scarcely a
woman at all in men's eyes, and may reasonably
expect to prove repugnant to them.i

The next few days were employed in making a
preliminary summing-up of the case. All her
"crimes" were first collected, without much re-
gard for order, under seventy heads. Three-quarters
of the accusations were founded upon falsehoods or
distorted facts which Joan, referring to the answers
she had given during the trial, contemptuously denied ;
and the remainder upon false and malicious inter-
pretation. Let us quote some examples. By an
insidious process (of which there had already been
too many instances during the examination) they
placed her in this^ dilemma : " Either she lies when
she asserts that her revelations came from God, or, if
she really believes that they did so, why did she
disobey them upon two separate occasions (before
Paris and at Beaurevoir)? She pleads that she
could not restrain herself from leaping, although
God had forbidden her to do so. Does she then
deny free will ? Does she fall into the error of those
who say that the will of men can be forced ? " Such
were the sophistries which were employed to ruin
this ignorant girl delivered defenceless into the hands
of learned men I

* The evidence of Pierre Cusquel, a mason, who questioned her
upon this point, throws the clearest light upon what Joan of Arc
thought.

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JOAN OF ARC

There are two points which must be dwelt upon ;
the rest would be mere repetition. One of them,
the only point in the line of defence adopted by her
which we cannot conscientiously approve of, is this.
In order to guard the king's secret more securely,
she persisted in the purely fanciful account of her
arrival at Chinon, adding from time to time new and
equally imaginary details. No doubt she spoke
allegorically, but why did she do so, when upon
every other occasion she simply spoke the truth ?
Why did she say, I did not leave the angel, I
entered with him, I walked with him," when she
only really meant that there was no other angel
but herself ; an angel indeed, since she was a mes-
senger" of God? The explanation is that by this
subterfuge she tried to conceal from everyone the
" sign " which she gave to the King of France, and
which confirmed her mission. This sign is known
or at least suspected by history, but Joan died
without having divulged it.

The other point is a more serious one. She was
accused of having persistently refused to submit
herself to the Church Militant, and of having ex-
pressed a right of appealing from it directly to God.
This accusation is untrue, although some of Joan of
Arc's most enthusiastic admirers seem to have
accepted it as well founded and honoured the hero-
ine for it. Her memory, however, cries out loudly
against such praise.

The truth of the matter we believe to have been
this. When Joan was asked whether she sub-
mitted herself to the Church Militant," she did

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not understand the expression, which was too
learned for her ignorance. She believed that they
were asking her to recognise in her actual judges,
that is to say her persecutors, the right of condemn-
ing her to a just death. She courageously refused
to do this, and appealed to God. She said to
Cauchon's face : I will not say that I submit to
your judgment, because you are my worst enemy."
But when the terms employed were afterwards more
clearly explained to her, when she was told that the
Church Militant meant the Pope and all the bishops
and priests, she emphatically declared herself willing
to submit and appeal to its authority ; and that, if
she had previously said anything against the Christian
faith, far from supporting such words, she meekly
withdrew them, asking that she " might be instructed."
Ten times was this assurance of submission repeated,
yet every time the judges tried to misconstrue its
absolute sincerity by citing something from among
her earlier answers in such a manner as to throw
suspicion upon her later ones. With great skill
they endeavoured to draw from her concessions
which she could not make without condemning
herself. They were always trying to involve her in
some hateful dilemma. They induced her to say
"that she submitted herself fully, but that she
was unable to revoke the truth of the visions and
apparitions which she had had, and which God had
sent her." " But if the Church Militant called upon
her to revoke them?" "She could not do so."
(Examination of the 31st March.) "Do you sub-
mit yourself, yes or no, to the Pope, the cardinals,

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JOAN OF ARC

the archbishops and the bishops ? " Yes, but our
Lord comes firsts There is certainly an accent of
proud independence in this reply, but it is not
such as to enable either friend or foe to say that
the answer puts her beyond the pale of the Church.
In the course of this same examination she said:
" If unwittingly I have done or said anjrthing which
the clergy declare to be contrary to the Christian
foith I do not wish to maintain it, I disown it."
On the 17th March, when they asked her Do you
submit yourself to the Pope ? " she replied : " Take
me to him ; before him I will say everything which
it is my duty to say."

Isambard de la Pierre, a Dominican, who was
one of the judges (and with Martin Ladvenu sub-
sequently ministered to Joan at the stake), stated
at the rehabilitation trial that he had exhorted her
to submit herself to the Pope, and that she had
said she did so willingly. He then exhorted her to
submit to the Council of Basle. She asked what
that was. Upon being informed that it consisted of
people of her own party as well as people of the
English party she said, ''I submit myself to it.**
Whereupon Cauchon in a fury shouted to Isambard :
" Hold your tongue, devil take you I " and forbade
him to mention the answer. The English threatened
to throw Isambard into the Seine. Joan complained
to Cauchon, " You have everything which is against
me written down, but you refuse to write anything
which is in my favour."

This stage of the case will always be more or less
shrouded in mystery. Apparently the judges, while

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THE TRIAL— IN THE PRISON 133

pretending to extract a submission pure and simple,
were afraid of obtaining one, and possibly schemed
to prevent it. At the rehabilitation trial Manchon
and Boisguillaume, the two notary clerks, asserted
independently of each other that Loiseleur, one of
the judges, and d'Estivet, the prosecutor, used to
steal into the prison with Cauchon at night, and
pretending to be on Joan's side, advise her not to
submit to the Church, hinting that such submission
would prove her ruin and would lead to her con-
demnation. Others have stated^ that Loiseleur,
disguising his person and capacity, had himself
presented to her as a Frenchman belonging to
Charles the VI I. 's party, detained in the castle as
a prisoner, and that, under the guise of a friend
and a companion in adversity, he gave her the same
treacherous advice. Guilaume Manchon went so
far as to assert that Loiseleur confessed her and
subsequently betrayed the secrets of her confession,
using them against her. No proof of this, however,
can be found in any authentic document. And,
finally, one witness, Pierre Cusquel,^ testified from
his own knowledge that Loiseleur, hiding himself
behind the prison door, and disguising his voice,
pretended to speak to the prisoner in the name of
St Catherine. We do not like to believe that Joan
could have allowed herself to be deceived by any of
these more or less clumsy tricks; and without
entirely denying that there may be a certain amount

^ Evidence of Jean Massieu, priest in Rouen, and usher at the
trial.

^ A common mason, perhaps a little credulous.

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JOAN OF ARC

of truth in these stories (though they do not hang
together very well), we think that their importance
has been greatly exaggerated. Joan's resistance was
founded upon exceedingly noble and entirely personal
scruples. She was quite willing to submit, but not
to surrender her claim to sincerity. That was all
which remained to her in this abyss of misery.

The day after Easter (the 2nd April) they
began to sum up in twelve articles the immense
mass of charges and accusations confusedly ex-
tracted from the case. The first work had extended
over seventy paragraphs, an interminable tissue of
lies and cooked up stories confuted both by Joan
herself and by all the evidence. The twelve articles
were drawn up more cleverly, and presented a far
more formidable charge. They were comparatively
moderate in tone and contained few violent re-
criminations. The facts, cleverly grouped together,
are supposed to speak for themselves, and it is
managed with considerable skill that they should do
so without too noticeable a perversion of the truth.

Twenty-two judges, doctors and licentiates, took
part in this work, the result of which was to
pronounce Joan's "visions, voices, revelations and
apparitions " to be " false and diabolical," and Joan
herself scandalous, schismatic and under suspicion of
heresy for having obstinately believed in them with-
out asking anyone's advice.

The twenty-two judges then proceeded to discuss
her punishment. The majority of them condemned
Joan of Arc, in the event of her not retracting, to
be handed over to the civil power; and if she did

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retract, to imprisonment for life as a punishment
for her sins. Three of them refrained from express-
ing an opinion, and two wished to refer the matter,
one to Paris and the other to Rome. This latter,
one Raoul Sauvage, a bachelor of divinity, was the
only one of her judges who had the discernment,
compassion or courage to declare the true motive
for her persistency in keeping to her masculine
attire.i

On Wednesday the 18th April, Joan, worn out
by the ill treatment and chains, the threats, the
weariness, the anguish of this interminable trial,
lay ill and prostrate in her prison, where eight
of the judges, one of whom was Cauchon, came to
find her, in order to accomplish the formality of
the "charitable exhortation." Before proceeding
further they warned the accused that if she persisted
" in her opinions " she would perish, but that if she
renounced them she would be treated with leniency.
They did not inform her that their " leniency " would
spare nothing except the punishment of death. On
that day Joan believed that her end was drawing
near. She replied by thanking the judges for what
they had been telling her for her good; but she
added : " It seems to me that I am in great peril of
death, seeing the sickness which is upon me. If such
be the case, may God dispose of me as He thinks
best. I look to you for confession, the Sacrament of
the Eucharist, and burial in consecrated ground."

^ He condemned her on this point, adding: ^* JVtsi hoc faceret
ad praeservaHonem violentia inferenda propter virginitatem
strvandamJ**

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JOAN OF ARC

These words failed to touch the judges. They
pressed her to yield, urging that otherwise all that
could he accorded to her would he the Sacrament of
Penance. " Should my body die in prison," she
answered, " 1 hope that you will have me buried in
consecrated ground ; should you not do so, I commit
myself to God." " Once for all, will you or will you
not submit yourself and your actions to the Church
Militant ? " " No matter what may be the conse-
quences to myself I will do or say nothing which I
have not already said during the trial." They
quoted scripture to her, and threatened to abandon
her " as a saracen." She answered : " I am a good
Christian, properly baptized, and as a good Christian
I will die." They then said to her: "Would you
like a splendid and imposing procession ordered
to restore you to better health?" "Surely," she
replied, " I am most willing that the Church and
all good Christians should pray for me."

This painful discussion has not always been rightly
understood by historians. It evidently arose from a
misunderstanding between Joan and her judges,
which it was their place, if they had all been acting
in good faith, to try and dispel ; but instead of that
they seemed purposely to confuse her. Assuredly
no theologian could have blamed Joan for having
had visions. The history of the Saints is filled with
instances similar to those for which she vouched.
They reproached her for not allowing the Church
to be the judge of the true character of the visions
she professed to have seen, whereas she by no means
refused to do so; indeed she could not refuse, for

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what right could she claim over the Church ? She
merely refused to deny her own faith in the divine
character of her mission; that was a simple fact
which she could not retract. If, for instance, I were
to see two suns in the sky, I should probably consent
upon the testimony of mankind to believe that my
eyes were misleading me and that there was but one.
At the same time I could not say that I only saw
one sun, for I saw two.

Her gaolers, the English, did not leave Joan
uncared for; they sent a doctor, Guillaume de la
Chambre, to visit her; but their charity was not
disinterested, for according to this doctor's testimony,
Warwick had said to him : " Try to cure her, for the
king does not wish her to die a natural death at any
price ; he paid dearly enough for her and does not
wish her to die except by the law and at the stake."

Two weeks later, on the 2nd May, the "public
admonition," which was to succeed the " charitable
exhortation " made in the prison, took place in the
court-room before Cauchon, supported by sixty-three
judges, and in the presence of a large audience.
Cauchon began with a summary of the whole pro-
ceedings, after which Jean de Ch&tillon, Archdeacon
of ^vreux, commenced the admonition, " Read your
book," Joan said to him, " I will answer you. In all
things I put my faith in God my Creator; I love
Him with my whole heart."

The Admonition is very long, but presents no
new fact or accusation. It concluded with the same
assurances of indulgence in case of submission, the
same threats in case of resistance. Joan answered

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JOAN OP ARC

in the following words : I believe in the Church
Militant, but as to my words and deeds, I refer
them to God who commanded them.*' Take care,"
replied the judges, *'this is heresy, and if we declare
you to be heretical other judges will condemn you to
be burned." " Were the fire before my eyes, I would
say everything which I have said to you, and I would
say nothing more." Here on the margin we find
written — superba responsio^ which should not be
translated " proud answer," but " arrogant answer.'*
" If the Pope and the General Council were here
would you submit yourself to them ? " "I will say
no more." " Will you submit yourself to the Pope ? '*
" Take me to him and I will answer you." " Submit
to the Church under penalty of being abandoned by
the Church. If the Church were to abandon you,
you would be in great peril both of body and soul,
and liable to incur the torments of everlasting fire
for your soul and of temporal fire for your body."
" You will not do the things you threaten me with,
without bringing upon yourselves evil to both body
and soul."

On the 9th May, in the presence of the
executioners, they threatened her with torture.
" Verily," she said, " if you were to order that all
my limbs should be pulled apart and my soul driven
from my body, I would not tell you anything more.
Or if I did tell you anything, I should always say
afterwards that you had compelled me to do so."
The judges then held a consultation (on the 12th
May) upon the application of torture ; but only three
of them (Albert Morel, Thomas de Courcelles and

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THE TRIAL— IN THE PRISON 139

Nicolas Loiseleur, who seems to have been more
violently disposed against the prisoner than any of
them) voted in favour of it. The rest to the number
of fourteen voted against it, declaring torture to be
useless. One of these, Raoul Rousset, expressed
this curious opinion : " The trial has been well con-
ducted ; torture would spoil it."

Cauchon, however, was anxious that this "well
conducted " trial should be entirely " irreproach-
able." ^ He sent all the documents to the Paris
University soliciting its support. In doing so he
ran no risk of meeting with any over scrupulous
fault-finders, for the Paris University was com-
pletely under English influence, and the enemies
of King Henry were their enemies as well. They
praised everything in the manner in which the affair
had been conducted, even to the "elegance" of
the report made of it by Jean Beaup^re in the name
of the judges of Rouen. Two separate resolutions,
one of the faculty of divinity, the other of the faculty
of law, resulted in a formal condemnation of the
accused, with even worse insults than those with

^ By the light of careful scrutiny t is very far from being so.
We do not mean from the point of view of justice but merely of
legality. Cauchon sent the twelve articles to the doctors of
Paris without having submitted them to the accused. Nor did he
insert all the corrections and restrictions requested by the judges.
At the trial for rehabilitation a mass of irregular proceedings at
the former trial were brought to light, but that is perhaps the
most flagrant of them, for it enabled the champions of the
University (with some exaggeration, we think) to maintain that
that great body had been shamefully deceived by Cauchon. It
should at least be admitted that the University, by its tacit but
obvious complicity, allowed itself to be deceived very easily.

140

JOAN OP ARC

which the Rouen judges had loaded hen Moreover
this judgment of the Paris University, pronounced
in the absence of the accused and without examina-
tion or inquiry, based entirely upon documents
brought from Rouen which were all hostile to Joan,
and treacherously drawn up and put together so as
to do her injury, is without any value. The gravest
accusation one can bring against the doctors who
pronounced it, is that they should have accepted
such a r61e under such unfair conditions.^

As soon as the approval of Paris was received at
Rouen they proceeded to hold the final deliberation.
Porty-two doctors declared that if the Maid did not
submit she should be pronounced heretical and

* In 1429 the Paris University was entirely devoted to the
Anglo-Burgundian party. It had consented to the Treaty of
Troyes and had remained faithful to it. The dissentient members
had been obliged to seek flight in 1418 ; a few of them were with
Charles VII., some, like Gerson, in retreat In other respects
the temper of the University with regard to the Council of Basle
had nothing to do with the condemnation of Joan of Arc The
French clergy of Henry the VI. 's party and the French clergy of
Charles VII. party professed the same doctrines upon the powers
of the Pope and of the Council. It should also be remembered^that
the Council of Basle was only formed in July 1431, two months
after the burning of Joan ; that it did not open its session until
14th December, and that it did not become schismatical until
after the assembly had been removed from Basle to Ferrara. By
that time the University had been completely reconciled to
Charles VII. In 1431, and in succeeding years, the Popes
(Martin V. and Eugene IV.) frequently extolled the perfect
orthodoxy of the Paris University. Eugene IV., when trans-
ferring Cauchon to Lisieux (29th Jan. 1432), loudly testified to
his orthodoxy. Upon all these matters, refer to Mimoires de la
Sociiti (Thistoire de Paris (le P. Denifle et Chatelain), roL
xxiv., 1897, Jeanne if Arc et V University de Paris,

THE TRIAL—IN THE PRISON 141

abandoned to the civil power. Five only, without
daring to speak of acquittal, tried to save her by
asking that a more exhaustive inquiry should be
made.

On Wednesday, the 23rd May, Joan received in
her prison the commission of nine judges appointed
to give her the following exposition of her errors : —
She maintains that her revelations are from God;
the learned men declare them to be untrue or
diabolical. The account she gave of her arrival in
Chinon, and of the angel who accompanied her to
the King is untrue. She pretends to recognise and
distinguish the angels and the saints; that is
presumptuous. To foretell the future; that is
superstitious and boastful. To have received from
God a command to wear men's clothes; that is
blasphemy. She has written threatening letters;
that is bloodthirsty passion. She left Domremy
without a word of warning to her father and mother;
that is disrespect and contempt for her parents.
She leapt from the tower at Beaurevoir; that is
despair and suicide. She believes that Paradise is
assured to her; that is rash presumption. She
declares what God loves and what God hates ; that
is the same sin. She believes in her voices ; that
is idolatry. She does not submit herself to the
Church but only to God; that is schismatic. All
her crimes having been read out, Pierre Maurice
exhorted her for the last time before the decree was
made public. The tone of this exhortation seems
gentler than that of those which preceded it, and I
believe that several of her judges sincerely wished

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JOAN OF ARC

her to yield and thus escape from death, for they
did not all share the violent hatred of the English
and their creatures. But, such is the blindness of
a prejudiced mind, her judges found her stubborn
and arrogant because she refused to accede to them.

Neither threats nor persuasion had power to
influence this intrepid soul, and she made this
answer: <<As to my speech and actions, which I
declared at the trial, I refer to them and desire to
uphold them. . . . Were I to see the fire blazing, the
stake and the executioner; were I in the flames
myself, I would not speak differently, I would hold
to what I have said during the trial until death."

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CHAPTER IX

THE ABJURATION — THE STAKE

HE trial was over; and there only now remained

^ the final catastrophe, which was still uncertain,
since there was yet time for the condemned woman
to avert it. On the Thursday after Whit- Sunday,
the 24th May 1431, Joan was taken out of her
prison, brought to the cemetery of Saint Ouen, and
placed upon a high platform at a sort of desk {amhone).
In the presence of the Bishop of Winchester, a
cardinal, and great uncle of Henry VI., of three
bishops, eight abbots, two priors, nine doctors of
divinity, two doctors of canon law, nine licentiates,
seven bachelors, and an immense crowd of the laity
(copiosa multitudo)^ Guillaume 6rard preached a
sermon upon the text, As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine." In
the middle of his sermon, he ventured to exclaim :
" Ah I noble house of France, which hast ever been
a defender of the faith, hast thou been so misguided
as to hold with a heretic and a schismatic ! ^ The
pity of it is great." Whereupon Joan pluckily broke
in, By my faith, sir, saving your reverence, I make

* According to Jean Massieu he had even said, "Joan, by believ-
ing in you, your king has become heretical and schismatic." The
English would have liked well that this should be believed.

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JOAN OF ARC

bold to say to you and to swear to you, under
penalty of my life, that King Charles is the most
noble Christian of all Christians, and the one who
best loves the faith and the Church." This touch-
ing tribute rendered by a martyr to the king who
had forsaken her, infuriated Cauchon. Make her
hold her tongue," ^ he shouted to the guards.

When the sermon was finished, a final ex-
hortation " to " submit herself to the Church " was
addressed to the prisoner. " As to the submission
to the Church," she replied, ''it is a point upon
which I have spoken. Let everything which I have
said be sent to Rome and laid before the Sovereign
Pontiff to whom and to God first of all I appeal.
But in regard to what I have said and done, it has
all been by God's command." "Are you ready
to condemn all the words and actions which the
clergy condemn ? " "I appeal to God and to our Holy
Father the Pope." "That is not sufficient, we
cannot go all that distance to find the Pope.^ The
bishops are judges in matters of faith, each in his
own diocese." They then began to read the " triple
admonition," the last thing before that final sentence
by which she would be abandoned to the secular
party, that is to say, to the executioner.

^ According to some it was the preacher himseU who silenced her.

^ It does indeed seem to us to-day that it must have been a
very long journey to Rome in the fifteenth century ; but it cannot
really have been so, for the road was well worn. P^re Denifle
justly observes that Rome cannot have been so far away, when
every day messengers were sent there to solicit favours. (Jeanne
(TArc et F University de Paris in the Revue de thistoire de Paris ^
vol. zxiv., 1897).

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THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE 145

As the last act of the drama approached the
excitement increased, and the crowd became un-
manageable. People shouted and threw stones.
Judges and populace entreated or railed at the
accused. '*Sign immediately or be burnt immedi-
ately I " 1 urged 6rard the preacher, in threatening
tones.

And then, facing the ^take which was ready to
blaze up, and the crowd of foes and friends who,
angrily or in pity, were urging her to recant ; worn
out, paralysed almost by the long imprisonment, by
the chains, the insults, the threats, the brutality,
by sickness, by the mental torture of thirty cross-
examinations, by the exhausting fatigue of a trial
which had lasted for a hundred and fourteen days, this
girl of nineteen became frightened. May the shame
of it be visited upon her judges and executioners!

She said : " I wish to maintain everything which
the Church shall command. I refer myself to our
Holy Mother the Church and to the judges." They
handed her a form of abjuration which had been pre-
pared beforehand. The form of abjuration which
appears in the report of the trial is very long, and
disavows Joan's entire mission in terms most insult-
ing to her; the text which they read to her, and
which they made her repeat word for word, was, on
the contrary, very short. (All the witnesses confirm
this, and say that the document contained from six
to eight lines.)^ Joan, however, who could not read,

^ Evidence of Jean Massieu, usher at the trial, and of Guillaume
de la Chambre.

^ Evidence of Jean Massieu, usher at the trial, who states
K"

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JOAN OF ARC

was unable, especially at such a moment, to make
sure of the exact text which they made her sign by
affixing a cross and a circle.

The abjuration, as it was transcribed into the
official report of the trial, retracted and denied
everything which she had said upon the score of her
mission. The pertinacity of her judges triumphed
at last over the firmness she had shown so long.
The final sentence was immediately read to her, for
a form of absolution and one of condemnation had
been prepared beforehand to be ready for any
emergency.^ Joan was absolved, and her excom-
munication was annulled; but as a punishment for
her sins she was condemned to imprisonment for
life '*on the bread of adversity and the water of
affliction," so that she might weep over those things
which she had done, and might no longer do things
for which she would be obliged to weep " {ut cammissa
defleas et deflenda postea non cammittas).

During the afternoon Joan was visited in her
prison by the Inquisitor and several of the judges.
They ordered her to resume her woman's clothes ; to
which she replied that in that and in all things she
would obey the Church. On the very same day she

explicitly, **that the form put in at the trial was not the one
which he had himself read to Joan, and which she had signed."

^ Evidence of Guillaume Manchon, reporter at the trial. He
says that Joan smiled while signing the deed of abjuration. If
this fact be true, it should be explained by her intense weariness and
the exhausted state of her nervous system rather than by imputing
to her a wish to mock her judges and deny her retraction. It
may have been this smile, however, which caused some English-
men to exclaim, "The abjuration is not serious." See below.

p. 147.

THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE 147

laid aside the man's dress she had been wearing for
twenty-seven months. Her hair was cut round the
level of her neck, which was the usual style among
men of the period. She submitted to have her head
shaved, and no doubt she donned a coif like those
worn by nuns.

The question arises, had Cauchon foreseen or
desired such a result? The evidence seems con-
flicting ; but if we examine it carefully, we shall see
that it is really consistent. A learned doctor who
was present at the abjuration, an Englishman, said
sharply to Cauchon: **An abjuration like that is
valueless, and should not be accepted.*' Cauchon,
losing his temper, replied: "You liel^ I am judge
in matters of faith; I must seek the salvation of the
sinner, not her death I "

One witness,^ however, tells us that after the
abjuration the infuriated English shouted to the
judges: "You have not earned your money"; and
that one of these answered : " Never fear, we shall
get her back." (Rehabebimus,)

Could this judge have been Cauchon himself? It
seems scarcely probable, though, according to very
trustworthy evidence,* Cauchon three days later,
when he had satisfied himself that Joan had re-
sumed her men's clothes, was seen in the midst of
the English evincing every sign of triumphant satis-
faction, and was heard to cry to Warwick and others :

^ Evidence of Guillaume du Desert, canon, at the rehabilitation
trial.

* Evidence of Jean Fav^.

' Evidence of Isambard de la Pierre.

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JOAN OP ARC

" We have her I " (or, " be of good cheer " It is
done."i

These diverse testimonies can easily be reconciled.
Cauchon was not sorry that Joan should be absolved
after she had retracted, provided that she was soon
retaken and condemned. In this way he was able
to reconcile, with an appearance of impartiality, the
satisfaction he felt at having in the end forced Joan
to disown her mission, the pleasure he took in a
personal revenge, and the reward which he hoped
to receive from the English for his services. It
is certain that the English were determined upon
the prisoner's death. Several witnesses asserted
at the rehabilitation trial that the English soldiers
even refused to resume the campaign and besiege
Louviers so long as the Maid was alive.

And yet the life which was left to her was worse
than death. She was kept in prison, in chains, and
at the mercy of coarse and cruel men who regret-
fully renounced the pleasure of seeing her burned,
and did not hesitate to tell her so. She may possibly
have overheard the judges bidding her gaolers to be
patient a little longer. At any rate the words were
justified by the event. On Sunday afternoon a
rumour spread abroad, that in spite of the command
she had received, and of the promise she had made,
Joan had once more returned to her masculine
attire. She had relapsed," and nothing now could
save her.

The same day some of the judges hastened to
the castle. The English stopped them in the
1 Evidence of Jean Toutmouill^, a preaching friar.

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THE ABJURATION—THE STAKE 149

courtyard, and covered them with insults. <*You
Churchmen, you are all Armagnac traitors and
false counsellors." They had great difficulty in
escaping, and when they returned on the following
day they were escorted by Cauchon, and under the
protection of the Earl of Warwick's men-at-arms.
When they reached the prison they found Joan
dressed as a man.

What had occurred ? Although the evidence seems
contradictory we think it can be reconciled. That a
trap was set for Joan's undoing is perfectly true ; but
we believe that she fell into it of her own accord and
preferred to die rather than to persist in her apostasy.

The story told at the rehabilitation trial by that
honest man, Jean Massieu, a priest who had done
duty as usher during the previous trial, and had
ever been lenient in his treatment of Joan, is well
known. He stated that the man's costume (laid
aside by her on the preceding Thursday) had been
put into a bag and kept in the room where she was
imprisoned. She was guarded by five Englishmen,
three of whom spent the night in the room and two
just outside, by the door. In the bed in which
she lay "her legs were fettered by two pairs of
iron chains, and she was very tightly bound by a
chain which passed through the legs of the bed,
and was attached to a huge block of wood five or
six feet in length and fastened with a padlock ; she
could not therefore move from her place." On
Sunday morning (Trinity Sunday, 27th May), wish-
ing to get up, as she told the witness himself (Jean
Massieu), she said to these Englishmen, her guards.

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JOAN OF ARC

"Loose my chains, and I will get up." Then one
of the Englishmen took away the woman's dress
she had on her (that is to say, lying upon the bed),
and the others emptied the bag in which was the
suit of men's clothes, threw the said clothes upon
her, saying, " Get up," and concealed the woman's
dress in the bag. She refused, saying : " It is
forbidden me, I will not take it." The struggle
lasted for several hours, until the middle of the day.
At length yielding to necessity, and still protesting,
she put on the suit of men's clothes.

The whole of this tale is substantially true, and if
for three days they kept in her room the suit of
clothes which under penalty of death she was never
to wear again, it is most probable that it was with
the intention of setting a trap for her. But I am
inclined to think that she allowed herself to fall into
the trap partly of her own free will. Against this
testimony we have to set that of Martin Ladvenu,
her last Confessor, that of Isambard de la Pierre,
who, with Martin Ladvenu, ministered to her at the
stake, and that of Jean Toutmouill^, a preaching
friar who visited her in her prison. These all de-
clared upon Joan's own authority that she had been
obliged to defend herself against the insults of one
of her guards, or perhaps even of a far greater
personage, and that it was for this reason she put
on the man's clothing, which with treacherous intent
had been left within her reach. Jean Toutmouill^
saw her in her prison, weeping, her face bathed in
tears, so disfigured and abused that she inspired him
with pity and compassion."

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THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE 151

We now come to the official version put forth by
the judges.^ On Monday, 28th May, eight of the
judges repaired to the prison where they found Joan
attired in men's clothes. She declared to them that
she had put them on of her own accord without
any pressure having been brought to bear. She
denied that she had sworn never to put them on
again. It was more seemly that she should wear
men's clothes since she was made to live among
men ; they had not kept the promises they had made
to her, that she should attend Mass, receive the
Body of our Lord, and be released from her chains.
Let them take her to Mass and permit her to have
a woman with her, let them give her *<a pleasant
prison" (without chains), and she would be good
and do whatever the Church required. The judges
asked her, Had she heard her voices again?"
"Yes." "What had they said to her?" "God
had sent her word through St Catherine and St
Margaret how great a pity it was that she had
consented to the treachery of abjuring in order to
save her life, and that in this way she was damning
herself I ^ If she said that God had not really sent
her she would be damned. For God had truly sent
her. Whatever she had said and revoked on the

^ Official in the sense that it was drawn up under the auspices
of the judges and annexed to the report of the trial, though not
till after the event. It does not form a part of the documents of
the case, and it does not pledge the professional responsibility of
the notaries.

2 In the margin of the three authentic copies we read these
words which must apparently have been reproduced from the no
longer extant original : Responsio mortifera (a fatal reply). And

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JOAN OF ARC

preceding Thursday had been said or revoked from
fear of the fire." "Then she believed that the
voices were those of St Catherine and of St
Margaret?" She replied, "Yes, I believe it, and
the voices connie from God. I would much prefer
to undergo my punishment once for all (that is, to
die) than stay any longer in prison."

Contrary to the opinion of many historians, we
think that this official account is truthful ; and we
believe that we can recognise in it the language and
the feelings of Joan of Arc. After an hour of weak-
ness she recovered herself, and then of her own
accord recalled a retraction which had been forced
from her by surprise and violence. She accepted
death, but in dying she would still be able to say,
" My voices came from God."

On the following day, Tuesday, 29th May, the
Court re-assembled in the chapel of the archbishop's
palace. There were present thirty-seven judges,
and Cauchon set the facts before them. Joan was
unanimously condemned. She was declared to have
relapsed into heresy, and it was ordered that she
should be given over to the secular power. Even
Isambard de la Pierre and Martin Ladvenu, who on
the morrow were to soothe her last hours with pious
counsel and human sympathy, did not consider that
they could withhold their votes from those who
were condenining her. There are evil moments in

indeed we do not doubt that, when she made this declaration and
repeated it, Joan knew quite well that she was sealing her doom,
and wished to do so, " in order that by destroying her body she
might save her soul."

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THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE 153

which the most humane become merely the least
savage. And so, on this last day, some did not even
wish that the form of abjuration should be re-read to
her ; others, and they were in the majority, insisted
thatt it should be read to her, but only for the good
of her soul," since, being a backslider, she was no
longer capable of abjuring : her body was irrevocably
doomed. Several of the judges (but these were in a
minority) did not wish that the civil power should be
requested to show tenderness towards her; others
wished to affix to the sentence this formula, which,
however, was absolutely idle, for the civil power
never paid the slightest attention to it.

At dawn on Wednesday morning, dOth May,
Pierre Cauchon and the Inquisitor summoned Joan
to appear in the Square of the Old Market at eight
o'clock in the morning, there to be declared a back-
slider, an excommunicate and a schismatic. Jean
Toutmouill6, a preaching friar, and Martin Ladvenu
were the first to reach the prison, and it was Jean
Toutmouill^ who was entrusted with, or who took
upon himself, the duty of announcing to Joan that
she was about to die. " She began to moan sorrow-
fully and pitifully, and writhe and tear her hair.^
* Alas I do they treat me so horribly and cruelly that
my body which is quite pure and never was corrupted
must to-day be consumed and reduced to ashes.
Oh I I would rather be decapitated seven times
than burned like this. Alas I if I had been in the
ecclesiastical prison, to which I submitted myself,
and if I had been guarded by the clergy, and not by
^ Evidence of Jean ToutmouilU.

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JOAN OP ARC

my enemies and adversaries, such terrible misfortune
would not have befallen me. Oh I I appeal to God,
the great Judge, against the great wrongs which they
do to me.' She then complained grievously of the
persecution and harsh treatment she had undef^one
in prison, from her gaolers and others who had been
brought to her. After these complaints the aforesaid
bishop (Cauchon) came in, to whom she at once said,
« Bishop, my death is at your door ! ' He began to
remonstrate with her, saying : * Ah, Joan, be patient.
You die because you did not hold to what you
promised us, and because you returned to your
original witchcraft.' And the poor Maid made
answer, < Alas I if you had placed me in the prison
of the Church Court, and put me into the hands
of legal and proper ecclesiastical guardians, this
would never have occurred. That is why I appeal
from you to God.* "

As it happened, all those who were present during
the last hour she spent in prison were her enemies ;
at any rate they were the judges who had condemned
her, and may therefore be justly suspected of having
been interested in ascribing weakness to her. What
then are we to think when they unanimously declared
that on that last morning she said to them, "My
voices deceived me." An avowal like this is such a
contrast to the firmness which is recognised in her
by all those who witnessed her martyrdom and
admired the heroism she displayed at the stake,
that the witnesses of the scene in the prison have
frequently been accused of lying. Probably they
were only guilty of exaggerating the import of a

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THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE 155

concession which she made to them. Perhaps the
account of Jean Toutmouill^, the preaching friar,
may give us some clue to the truth. According to
him, Cauchon had said to Joan, Come now, Joan,
you have always told us that your voices assured
you that you would be saved, and now you see how
they have deceived you ; come, tell us the truth I **
And Joan had replied, Yes^ indeed, I see full well
that they have deceived ." What can have been
the real meaning of these words, supposing them to
be authentic? She could not have meant to say
that the voices did not come from God, for shortly
afterwards she died declaring that " they came from
God.'* What she meant was this — I did not
understand them, I thought that they promised
that I should be saved, and I see that I am about
to -die." " But were these voices good or evil ? "
insisted Cauchon. "I appeal to my mother the
Church" (or, according to another version, "to
you who are Churchmen").^ Certainly this was
no disavowal of her mission ; but she was weary of
wrangling, and now that the end had drawn so near,
she wished her thoughts to dwell on God alone and
allowed men to believe whatever they pleased about
her.2

^ Evidence given by Nicolas de Venderes, Martin LAdvenu,
Pierre Maurice, Jean Toutmouill^, Jacques Lecamus, Thomas de
Courcelles and Nicolas Loiseleur. She acknowledged that the
angel who had brought the crown to Chinon ''was none other
than herself,'' and confessed that there had been no crown except
the promise of the coronation.

^ This, we believe, is the conclusion to be drawn from the trust-
worthy evidence. We do not include that of Nicolas Loiseleur,

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JOAN OF ARC

She fervently desired to partake of the Body of
her Lord before going to her death; and in order
that her judges might grant her this favour, which
on principle was refused to unrepentant backsliders,
it was necessary to conciliate them by words, which
they might, in strictness, interpret as a final conces-
sion. With Cauchon's permission, Martin Ladvenu
confessed her and afterwards administered to her the
Holy Communion. " The Body of our Lord * was
irreverently brought to her without candles or lights
of any kind, and without a procession; and the
priest who carried it had on neither surplice nor
stole." Brother Martin was incensed at this, and
sent back for candles, a surplice and a stole. The
condemned woman " received the Communion most
devoutly, shedding copious tears." It was then, no
doubt, that she said to Pierre Maurice, " Master
Pierre, where shall I be to-night ? " " Have you not
firm trust in God ? " " Yes, yes, and by God's grace
I shall be in Paradise."

Towards eight o'clock in the morning the melan-
choly procession set forth from the prison and the
castle. Joan of Arc had been dressed in a long
white robe falling to her feet, and upon her head was
set a sort of mitre bearing this inscription," Heretic,
backslider, apostate, idolatress." A hundred and
twenty men,^ some armed with swords, some with

that perfidious and bitter enemy who (alone among all the witnesses)
had the audacity to state that Joan showed profound contrition for
all the wrongs she had wickedly done the English and Buigundians.
More bare-&ced lying it would be impossible to imagine.

^ Evidence of Jean Massieu who was present.

^ According to other authorities, who probably exaggerated.

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THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE 157

clubs, formed an escort for the condemned woman.
An immense crowd had already gathered in the
Square of the Old Market. Joan was first exposed
to view as on the preceding Thursday, upon a raised
platform so that everyone might see her. A board
fastened to the scaffold bore this inscription : " Joan
who called herself the Maid, lier, worker of mischief,
deceiver of the people, soothsayer, believer in super-
stitions, blasphemer of God, presumptuous disbeliever
in the faith of Jesus Christ, boaster, idolatress, cruel,
dissolute, invoker of evil spirits, apostate, schismatic,
heretic." Nicolas Midi preached a sermon on the
text (1st Corinthians, chap, xii.) — "And whether
one member suffer, all the members suffer with it."
Joan was this diseased member that must be severed
from the body. She was then bidden to consider
the salvation of her soul, and to listen devoutly to
the preaching friars who were ministering to her.
They dwelt upon her crimes, her abjuration and her
vain-glorious retraction, and finally declared her to
be a heretic and a backslider, cut her off from the
Church and abandoned her to the secular authorities^

there were seven or eight hundred. Pierre Boucher says that
there were ten thousand spectators at her death, but that number
seems excessive, the Square was not large enough.

^ These are the last lines of the sentence of excommunication :
"That after such an abjuration of your errors you have fallen
once more (Oh ! the pity of it !) into the same aforesaid crimes, like
the dog that returns to his vomit, is sufficiently and manifestly
apparent from your confessions and spontaneous declarations.
We consequently declare you to be a heretic and a backslider,
and lest, like a rotten member, you should equally infect all the
other members, we pronounce that you be cast out from the unity
of the Church and abandoned to the secular power ; praying the

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JOAN OF ARC

" with the request that they would deal mercifully
with her and moderate her sentence, not going to
the length of death or mutilation of her members,
and requesting that, if she showed any true signs of
repentance, the Sacrament of Penance should be
administered to her."

Vain forms! They granted "the Sacrament of
Penance " on condition that she showed unequivocal
signs of remorse, to one who less than an hour before
in the prison had received not only absolution, but
the Sacrament of Communion. At the same time
they prayed the secular power to spare the body of
the culprit, although it was understood beforehand
that the civil judge would pay no attention to the
request.

The official report of the trial ends with the
formula of excommunication, after which there is
only the certificate of authenticity signed by the
three clerks. The rest did not concern the Church,
and no official record of it has survived.

When the formula of excommunication had been
pronounced, the ecclesiastical judges withdrew, their
duties being over. Then a most atrocious, monstrous
and absolutely illegal thing took place. The bailiff,
a secular judge called Jean le Bouteiller, was present,
surrounded by his assistant judges, and it was his
place to decide upon the fate of the girl whom the
Church had abandoned. This tool of the King of

said secular power to moderate its judgment towards you, stopping
short of death or the mutilation of your body, and to allow the
Sacrament of Penance to be administered to you if you should
show true signs of penitence."

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THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE 159

England was in such a hurry to get the matter over
that he forgot that he ought to make some pretence
of judging or at least condemning Joan before burn-
ing her, but merely said to the executioner : " Pro-
ceed with your duties/' And Joan of Arc was burned
without any death sentence having been passed upon
her.i

Two sergeants conducted Joan to the stake which
had already been erected, and had been raised to an
exceptional height so that she might be seen from a
distance, or in order to prolong her sufiPerings; for
the higher the pile the longer it took the flames to
reach and su£Pocate the victim. Let us, however,
leave the task of describing this wonderful death to
those who witnessed it. They were all of them more
or less inimical to Joan ; for this very reason their
testimony seems the more eloquent.

" At the last," says Isambard de la Pierre, " Joan
was overcome with such great remorse and repent-
ance that it was something wonderful to see, and
gave utterance to such devout, pathetic and Catholic
words, that all the great multitude who beheld her
wept bitterly. So much so that the English cardinal
and many other English were constrained to weep
and feel compassion for her." And so all the spec-
tators wept, and the tears of most of them were
sincere. For human nature is so constructed that
it can feel moved to pity by sufferings for which it is
itself responsible, and so finds a sweetness in its
tears which drives away remorse.^ ''And the un-

^ Evidence of Isambard de la Pierre.

' Guillaume Manchon, clerk at the trial, testifies to these tears ;

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160

JOAN OF ARC

happy woman humbly begged and entreated Brother
Isambard, as he stood near her at the end, to go to
the church close by and bring her the cross, so that
he might hold it straight before her eyes until death
came. An Englishman made a little wooden cross
out of two sticks, and gave it to her. She took it,
pressed her lips devoutly upon it, and put it in her
bosom underneath her dress and against her body.
Then the Clerk of St Saviour brought her the cross
from the church, which, when it was brought to her,
she embraced long and closely, and kept until she
was bound to the stake." ^

The English, meanwhile, were becoming impatient
at the delay, although, according to the statement of
Jean Massieu, not more than half an hour elapsed
between the abandonment of the condemned to the
civil power and her death. The English commanders
shouted to the Confessor : ** Come, priest, would you
have us dine here?" They appeased them by
lighting the fire. Joan kept up a continuous murmur
of Jesus, Jesus," protesting that she was neither
heretical nor schismatical. Seeing that Isambard
de la Pierre and Martin Ladvenu ^ remained by her
side as the flames began to ascend, she became
alarmed for their safety, and implored them to go
down, only entreating them to hold the cross before
her eyes. " Until the last she declared that her
voices came from God, and had not deceived her;

he himself could not stop crying for a month. With port of the
money he had made out of the trial he bought a little missal
which he still had (1455), so that he might pray for her."

^ Estache^ i.e. poteau (stake). Evidence of Jean Massiea.

' Evidence of Isambard de la Pierre and Martin Ladvenu.

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THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE 161

that her revelations came to her from God: and
that everything she had done she had done by the
command of God." ^

And so, whatever may have been the text and
purport of the words dragged from her that morning
in the prison (words which were the cost paid by her
for the joy of receiving the Body of her Lord), it is
clear from positive evidence that at the last hour,
transported by the efficacy of the holy Sacrament
and by the approach of her martyrdom, wherein
faith taught her to see her triumph, at this last
hour she became herself again; she saw the heavens
open, and she vindicated her voices: "No, my
voices did not deceive me." At the first gleam of
the burning faggots the martyr understood. The
salvation promised to her by the voices was the
Paradise which was opening to her ravished gaze.
The ignoble death was the consecration of her
mission. Following in the footsteps of her Divine
Saviour she triumphed in death.

" In the midst of the flames she never once
ceased confessing in a loud voice the holy name of
Jesus, continually imploring and invoking the help
of the Saints in Paradise; and, finally, as she
breathed her last, and bowed her head, she uttered
the name of Jesus in so loud a tone that this last
cry was heard at the further end of the Square."^

As soon as she had expired, the English caused

^ See the explicit evidence of Manchon od this very important
point.

^ Evidence of Isambard de la Pierre, Jean Massieu, Leparmentier
and Jean Riquier.

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JOAN OF ARC

the fire to be scattered so as to disperse the smoke
and allow everyone to see that she was actually
dead and had not been permitted to escape. Im-
mediately after the execution, the executioner came
to the two monks who had ministered to her^ over-
come by a marvellous repentance and terrible re-
morse, fearing in his despair that he would never be
able to obtain pardon and mercy from God for what
he had done to this holy woman. Four hours after
nones he still maintained that he had never dreaded
any execution so much ; firstly^ because of the great
renown and fame of this woman, and secondly,
because of the cruel way of binding and exposing
her. For the English had had so lofty a scafiPold
constructed that he could not easily reach her or
despatch her, on which account he grieved sorely
and was full of pity for the cruel manner in which
they had made her die."^ In like manner Jean
Tressart, secretary to the King of England, displayed
great sorrow and deep emotion on returning from
the execution. "We are lost," he groaned, "we
have burned a saint."^ One of the English soldiers
had taken an oath to add a faggot to the pile. He
carried out his intention, but, on hearing Joan of
Arc cry "Jesus," he became dumbfounded, fainted
away, and was carried to a tavern close to the Old
Market to be revived. Another declared that when
Joan expired he had seen a dove fly away from the

' Evidence of Martin Ladvenu.

* Bonam sanctam personam (Evidence of Pierre Cusquel). ** I
would that my soul were where I believe the soul of that woman
to be," said the canon Jean A16pee (Evidence of Jean Riquier).

THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE 163

stake.^ And so it came to pass that the hard hearts
of some of her enemies were moved to a little pity at
A» sight of her martyrdom I The crime was, never-
theless, carried out to the bitter end. Joan's ashes,
with her heart and entrails (which, according to the
statement of the executioner, had not been con-
sumed), were thrown into the Seine along with the
remains of the stake.

We must not, indeed, as has frequently been done,
exaggerate the repentance of her enemies. For
having presumed to say that she had not been
properly judged, a Dominican friar was obliged to
retract his words, humbly beg for mercy, and con-
sider himself lucky to get off with a year's imprison-
ment on a diet of bread and water.

In the course of the month of June, King Henry
VI. officially notified the condemnation and death
of Joan of Arc to the Emperor, to the Christian
kings, dukes and princes throughout Europe, to the
prelates, dukes, counts and other nobles of France,
and to every city in France. The University of
Paris announced the same event to the Pope and
the cardinals, being careful to assure the Holy
Father (which was a lie) that Joan had refused to
submit to any established authority, even to the
highest such as the Council, and had declared that
she recognised no other judge but God. The letter
to the Pope concluded in the following manner : —

By the issue of these events a striking lesson
has been given to everybody. Everybody most clearly
realised how dangerous and terrible a mistake it
^ Evidence of Isambard de la Pierre.

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JOAN OF ARC

would be thoughtlessly to put too much faith in
these new-fangled conceits, which not only the said
woman, but also many other women in this most
Christian kingdom, have lately been spreading abroad.
And by this notable example all the faithful followers
of the Catholic religion should be warned not to
think too highly of their own opinions, but that they
should cling to the doctrines of the Church and the
teachings of their prelates, rather than to the fables
of superstitious women. For if, through our failings,
the day shall ever come when the people in their
levity shall listen to soothsayers falsely prophesying
in God's name, instead of to the priests and doctors
of the Church to whom Christ said, « Go ye, there-
fore, and teach all nations,' then will religion forth-
with perish, faith will decay, the Church will be
trampled under foot, and the iniquity of Satan will
reign over the whole world."

There is no doubt a certain amount of affectation,
not to say hypocrisy, in this epistle, and yet it shows
us that the fears and scruples which were only
simulated by some of the judges, were not simulated
by all. Let us deal frankly with this delicate point.

That the trial of Joan of Arc was not honest, has
been clearly enough proved by the evidence in the
trial for rehabilitation. The weight of power against
her was scandalous. The English wished at all
costs to compass the death of the Maid, and the
Chief of the Court was her personal enemy. Yet it
was not solely to obey the English and gratify
Cauchon that so many doctors condemned Joan of
Arc. They were not all of them merely bribed;

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THE ABJURATION— THE STAKE 165

several honestly believed that the firmness of the
accused was an obstacle to the Church's authority.
Cauchon very cleverly convinced the credulous by
this argument, just as he employed other means to
win over the more astute. Every kind of means
was used to destroy the victim: money, threats,
promises, corruption, and even conscientious scruples.
The judges were not all equally infamous; several
of them were merely blinded by prejudice. This,
perhaps, does not go far towards redeeming the
dignity of human nature, but it is only right that we
should admit the slightly extenuating circumstances.

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CHAPTER X

THE REHABILITATION

HO can say how many years it takes for

^ ^ prejudiced eyes, blinded by pride, hatred,
self-interest, or merely by ignorance, to become
once more open to the light of truth ? One would
have thought that on the very day after Joan's
death the emotion caused by the martyrdom of
this girl of nineteen would have been sufficient to
arouse on her behalf a universal feeling of pity and
admiration. Yet nothing of the sort occurred I
For a long time she remained, for the whole of
Europe, a subject of scandal and of angry disputes,
and, as a German theologian, Jean Nider, remarks,
all the learned men were divided in their opinions
about her.i This, alas, is not the first or the only
occasion on which the truth has been revealed to
the many simple folk and hidden from the wise.
Among all the diverse opinions expressed upon

^ He himself is inclined to believe, on the aathority of the
Paris theologians, that she was a witch inspixed by the devil ;
and therefore, since she refused to confess and show detestation
of her error, he thought her death was just. Antonin de Forciglioni,
Archbishop of Florence, thought quite otherwise. He belieyed
that she had been guided by the spirit of God, for he saw nothing
evil in her actions and nothing suspicious in her doctrine.

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THE REHABILITATION 167

Joan of Arc by her contemporaries, the most
interesting is undoubtedly that of the future Pope
Pius II (iCneas Silvius Piccolomini) inserted in his
MemoireSf which, though nominally by a secretary,
were really composed by himself and were com-
pleted in 1463. The opinion is expressed at great
length,^ and I quote only the more remarkable
passages, translating as accurately as possible the
elegant Latin of Pius II.

"So long as she was alive, even as a prisoner,
the English, who had been so often defeated by
her, did not feel safe. They dreaded her spells
and desired her death. As soon as the judges had
ascertained that she had once more put on men's
clothing they condemned her to be burned as one
who had relapsed, and, in order that her ashes
might not be honoured, they caused them to be
thrown into the Seine.

"Thus died Joan of Arc, an admirable and
wonderful virgin, after having saved the kingdom
of France, which was prostrate and on the point
of being broken in pieces, and after having brought
many disasters upon the English^ She became a
captain and lived among soldiers, but she kept
her chastity ; no evil rumour was ever heard against

"Whether the work that she did was divine or
merely human I dare not decide. Some believe that

^ Pius II. attaches great importance, as we have done, to the
check before Paris. " The Maid's influence waned. From that
moment her name was no longer so great an object of fear to the
English, or of veneration to the French.''

her.

168

JOAN OP ARC

when the French princes were at variance with one
another and unwilling to submit themselves to
one leader, some one, wiser than the rest, in-
vented this stratagem to arrest the continued
success of the English. It was thought that a
virgip with a divine mission would improve dis-
cipline, for what man refuses to obey God? And
that is how the conduct of the war came to be
entrusted to the Maid.^

" However that may be, taking into account only
whs^t is certain and remarkable, under the Maid's
guidance the siege of Orleans was raised; by her
army the whole country between Bourges and Paris
was compelled to submit to the king ; by her advice
Rheims was placed in the power of Charles VII.,
and the coronation was celebrated; through her
daring one of the gates of Paris was burned; by
her skill and energy {indtistria) the affairs of the
King of France were re-established on a firm basis.
All these achievements are worthy of everlasting
renown, but posterity will regard them rather with
wonder than with faith."

Pius II., in these passages, defends Joan of Arc's
memory as it should have been defended. He
says : " Look at the facts. The facts speak for
themselves." The same course was followed by
Martin le Franc, a French poet, contemporary

^ This theory (which Pope Pius II. himself rejects) is untenable.
The ** ofl&cial '* folk never ceased to oppose Joan of Arc's mission.
They received her without believing in her and after much hesita-
tion. They followed her reluctantly and abandoned her without
regret.

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THE REHABILITATION

169

with Joan, who, in his poem entitled the Champion
des Dames, was the first to venture upon a vindica-
tion of the Maid. He wrote before 1440, and his
work is dedicated to the Duke of Burgundy. He is
specially praiseworthy for having had the courage,
fifteen years before the rehabilitation trial, to cele-
brate Joan's exploits, to admire her virtues and to
proclaim boldly that God had been with her. The
verses are indiflFerent, but the sentiment which
inspired them is remarkable, and we pardon so
loyal a Frenchman for his failings as a poet :

Mais qui, en livre ou en comment,
Voudra ses miracles retraire,
On dira qu'il ne se piit faire
Que Jeanne n'e^t divin esprit ;
Qui k telles choses parfaire
Ainsi Tenflamma et T^prit.^

"The dames* adversary" (who opposes their
"champion") insultingly replies that Joan's whole
story is a " made-up trick " ; that more clever folk
than she had prepared the plot, and that chance did
the rest. But the " champion of dames/' is indignant
that such evident miracles should be denied or
attributed to chance.

^ Whoever in book or story would tell of her miracles must
allow that Joan had a divine spirit which urged and inspired her
to do such deeds.

Disent d'elle ce que voudront ;
lis peuvent parler ou se taire.
Mais ses louanges ne faudront

Pour mensonge qu*ils sachent £ure.

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JOAN OF ARC

Que t'en faut-il outre retraire ?
Par sa vertu, par sa vaillance.
En depit de tout adversaire

Couronn^ fut le roi de France.

"And Joan was burned at Rouen," retorted the
opponent contemptuously. "Yes," replied the
"champion," "but have not many saints been
martyrs, and did not Jesus himself die upon the

cross ? " 2

Nineteen years after Joan of Arc's death the
proceedings for her rehabilitation were begun, the
king's first warrant for the trial being dated on the
14th February 1450.

We do not deny the importance of this act of
expiation. It is well that men should do what they

^ Let them say what they will of her ; they may speak or hold
their tongues. But her praises will not cease for all the lies they
know how to tell. What need is there to say more? By her
courage and bravery the King of France was crowned in spite of
all his enemies.

^ It seems difficult to believe that another poet, a Frenchman,
Martial d'Auvergne, after having given, in his Vigiles de
Charles VIL, an otherwise favourable account of Joan's story,
should have ended with these lines on the punishment the
English inflicted on her :

(Whether they did well or ill we must leave God to decide, for
He alone can understand and sift such cases.)

At the same period (1461) Villon spoke more kindly of the
good Joan of Lorraine, whom the English burned at Rouen."
He calls her "of Lorraine," because she came from a countiy
which was often called Marche de Lorraine^ though it was held of
the King of France.

Si firent mal ou autrement
II s'en faut 4 Dieu rapp>orter,
Qui de tels cas peut seulement.
lit-sus connattre et discuter.

THE REHABILITATION 171

can to atone for the crimes they have countenanced^
but we cannot here speak of Joan of Arc's "re-
habilitation" with the delight and emotion which
some historians seem to feel when they describe
this fresh trial* It adds nothing to the victim's
glory; and the honour of Prance stood in greater
need of it than the honour of Joan of Arc.

Nevertheless the rehabilitation trial is interesting
because of the fresh light it throws upon Joan'a
history. The judges at the former trial had dis-
regarded or been ignorant of many precious details
which were now disclosed by a number of witnesses
from Domremy, Vancouleurs, Orleans, Paris and
Rouen. These details add new features to the
portrait of our heroine. Many good people^ came
to give their evidence at this trial which was to
vindicate her memory; people whom she had met
with during her short life, companions of her child-
hood or of her warlike exploits, from the little
shepherd of Domremy to the great Dunois. All
these came, filled with admiration, enthusiasm and
pity, to speak about her and to tell what they knew
and had seen; and it is a pleasure to read their
touching, simple, generous words.

But when we come to the evidence of Joan's
former judges and of the learned men who agreed to

^ Hauviette, now the wife of one Gerard, and Mengette, now
the wife of one Joyart, companions of her childhood, who had
often spun at the wheel with her (it was Hauviette who had wept
so bitterly when she learned that Joan had left without her know-
ledge and without having said good-bye) ; and Simonin Musnier,
a boy of her own age, whom she had visited, nursed and comforted
when he was ill.

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JOAN OP ARC

her condemnation, and witness their posthumous'pity,
the excuses by which they endeavour to screen them-
selves, and the pains they nearly all take to show
that they had been deceived or coerced, the read-
ing of the interminable report of the trial becomes a
painful task.

The first trial, we agree, had been an iniquitous
proceeding, and among the many proofs which might
be furnished of that fact, not the least striking is
to be found in those " letters of indemnity " ^ which
the judges had procured from the King of England
on the 12th June 1431; for judges whose con-
sciences are easy require no such protection from
the government, or if they do, it is because they have
pronounced judgment according to orders received
But when the surviving judges tried to make out
at the rehabilitation enquiry in 1455 that the former
trial had been a simple fraud from beginning to
end, of which they had been the first dupes, we
fear that in their own interests they slightly ex-
aggerated the facts. For, in 1431, there were so
many doctors at Rouen and in Paris who approved of
the sentence I It had been proclaimed to the world at
large, and no protest had been raised. The truth
is, as we have siaid, that for a time after her death
everybody was ashamed of Joan of Arc. The English
and their allies were ashamed of having been beaten
by her, and the French were ashamed of having
been saved by her.

^ The text of these letters is curious, and proves clearly the
apprehensions of the judges when they reflected upon possible
changes of fortune and revulsions of public feeling.

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THE REHABILITATION 173

Twenty years later the situation was reversed;
the English had been driven from France, Charles
VII. was all powerful, and England was wasted by
civil war. Then it was that the forgotten figure of
Joan of Arc was revived in the memories of the
French; a figure exalted, purified and associated
now with the wonderful spectacle which they
witnessed of their native land at last recovered
from the enemy. Then it was that remorse for the
abandonment of Joan was awakened in the heart
of Charles VII. Proceedings for her rehabilitation
were decided upon and energetically pushed forward;
and so, just as her temporary defeat twenty years
before had seemed to condemn her, she was now
vindicated by this final victory.

From this moment it was the interest of every-
body (including the king himself) on all sides,
whether at Court, in the army, in the Church, at
Rouen (which had become French once more), or in
Paris (which had become Royalist again), to reduce
the number of those to whom the guilt of the judicial
murder of Joan of Arc would have to be attributed,
and to encourage the belief that all the others had
been shamefully deceived by those who had managed
the af^ir. And the task would be all the easier, if
it could be made out that the few real culprits had
already gone down into their graves. Cauchon, who
had become a scapegoat for the sins of many, had
been dead for eight years, and Jean Lemaltre, the
Inquisitor, had sunk into such complete obscurity that
no one knew whether he was alive or dead. In this
way a fictitious account of the trial might be given.

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JOAN OF ARC

resolving it into a duel between Cauchon and Joan
of Arc, and Cauchon's old accomplices might come
to the new trial, with tears in their eyes, to bear
witness to the Maid's virtues. In just the same
way, under the Restoration, the old Terrorists, after
carefully washing their blood-red hands, threw the
entire responsibility for the Terror upon three or
four dead men, and shed tardy tears of useless pity
over the graves of the victims.^

We do not suggest that Cauchon and those honest
or merely servile spirits who shared his rancour
did not resort to strong measures with the judges
in order to obtain Joan's condemnation. All the
witnesses declare, and the judges themselves un-
animously confess (in 1456) that the pressure
brought to bear upon them throughout the trial
was incessant, violent and shameful. We merely
express the opinion that the excuse is a shameful
one, and that prolonged compliance like theirs
cannot be judged so leniently as we would judge
an act of weakness extorted from an honest man
surprised by a sudden threat of death. Joan's
judges had five months in which to recover their
independence of mind, and, after all, it cannot be
said that the knife was at their throats on the
day they condemned her. We do not deny that
the judges were threatened, scolded, even coerced

* There were, however, some exceptions to the general feeling
of pity. Nicholas Caval, for example, said : I only know one
thing, and that is she was burned. As to whether that was just
or iwjttst, I refer to the trial." For evidence of this plan of
representing the judges as deceived by a plot contrived by three
or four see especially Quicherat, Proch^ etc., vol. ii. p. 257.

THE REHABILITATION 175

by force.^ Jean de la Fontaine was roughly treated
by the English. Jean Lohier believed that his life
was in danger and fled from Rouen.2 Pierre
Minier and Isambard de la Pierre were insulted
and threatened. Nicholas de Houppeville was put
in prison and then expelled from the town. Accord-
ing to this man's evidence, the Vice- Inquisitor
himself was very frightened. Jean de Ch^tillon,
having complained that the trial was not being
conducted impartially, was requested not to appear
in court again. "Everybody trembled before
Cauchon," said Jean Massieu, whom the terrible
Bishop of Beauvais had one day threatened "to

1 See the evidence of Guillaume Manchon, Nicholas de
Houppeville, Jean Massieu and others. There are, however,
other witnesses (less numerous, it is true) who contradict this.
Nicholas Taquel declares that he never saw anyone ill-treated.
If we can believe Thomas Marie, many judges were afraid,
but many were bribed. Bribed they certainly were and hand-
somely. The King of England paid all expenses and did not
spare his money. For a hundred and fifty-three days spent in
the king's service "in the matter of the Maid," Cauchon received
seven hundred and sixty-five livres (five livres or a hundred sous
a day). The Paris doctors summoned to Rouen for the trial
were allowed twenty sous a day until their return to Paris. The .
Inquisitor received twenty gold pieces for his attendance at the
trial. The intrinsic value of a livre of 143 1 is eight francs and
forty-one and three-quarters centimes. But the value of precious
metals (even taking the value of silver to be fifteen and a half
times less than that of gold, though the real value is much less) was
at least six or seven times greater in 143 1 than it is to-day ; and
consequently a livre of 1 43 1 corresponds to fifty-five francs of our
present money. Cauchon received from the English a salary of
eight thousand francs a month. He was worth it.

2 This is related by contemporaries as a fact. P^re Denifle
questions it {Jeanne ePArc et r university de Paris ^ 1897).

176

JOAN OF ARC

throw into the Seine." Richard de Grouchet, one
of the judges, declares that his acquiescence in the
sentence was wrung from him by fear, threats and
terror." But, after all, as we have said before, the
knife was not at the throats ; and it is the business
of a judge to judge, not to tremble.

That is what has prejudiced many honest minds
against the rehabilitation trial : the eagerness of the
survivors to throw upon those who were dead the
responsibility for the crime. To begin with, the
"recitals" of the first "commission" given by
Charles VII. at Rouen are curious. The king
seems as if he were awakening from a long sleep,
and has the appearance of having discovered for the
first time in 1450, that Joan of Arc had been burned
in 1431.

Whereas long ago Joan the Maid was captured and taken into
custody by our former enemies, the English, and brought to
this city of Rouen ; and whereas they caused proceedings to
be taken against her by certain persons who were thereto
commissioned and deputed by themselves ; and whereas in
course of the said trial they made and committed several
irregularities and abuses so that by means of the said trial
and the great hatred which our said enemies bore towards
her they caused her to be iniquitously, unjustly, and very
cruelly put to death; and whereas we are desirous of
learning the truth about the said trial, and about the
manner in which it was conducted, etc

Charles VII. originally intended to proceed with the
rehabilitation pf the Maid in his own name ; and this
tardy reparation he certainly owed to her. On the
14th February 1450, Guillaume Bouilld, a doctor of
Paris University , was instructed to open a preliminary

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THE REHABILITATION 177

inquiry at which was heard the evidence of the three
priests who had visited Joan in her prison on the
morning of the execution, and had followed the
condemned woman to the stake: Isambard de la
Pierre, Martin Ladvenu and Jean Toutmouill^. The
clerk Manchon, the usher Massieu, and Jean Beau-
p^re, one of those judges who had shown themselves
most hostile to the accused, were also heard. Two
years later Cardinal d'Estouteville, Archbishop of
Rouen, and Jean Br^hal, Inquisitor of France, were
commissioned to hold a second and formal enquiry
in the course of which they took the evidence of
twenty-two witnesses. But at this period the Court
was becoming reconciled with England and was
carrying on negotiations with a view to peace.
Under these circumstances it was felt to be incon-
venient that so important an af^ir should be carried
on in the King's name, for the amnesty granted
after the recapture of Normandy might thereby be
compromised. The better plan seemed to be to
promote an appeal on the part of Joan of Arc's
family to the Pope, the judge legally qualified to
decide upon a judgment given by an ecclesiastical
tribunal in a matter of faith. Upon the strength of
memorials ^ presented to the Holy See and discussed

^ One of these memorials has been published, and is singularly
interesting. It came from a little known person, Th^ore de
Lellis, one of the judges of the Rota, who became a cardinal and
died in 1465 at the age of thirty-eight. The memorial takes the
twelve articles of the condemnation and vigorously refutes them one
by one. Upon one essential point the author replies in advance to
the praises which Joan of Arc has received from some historians
of the present century, praises which are not disinterested and

178

JOAN OF ARC

by his advisers, Calixtus III. favoured the request,
and on the 11th June 1455, directed the Arch-
bishop of Rheims (Jean Jouvenel des Ursins) and the
Bishops of Paris and Coutances (Guillaume Chartier,
brother of Alain Chartier; and Richard Olivier de
Longueil, afterwards Cardinal and first President of
the Court of Accounts), in concert with Jean Br^hal,
the Inquisitor of Prance, to proceed with the revision
of the trial of Joan of Arc.

The proceedings for revision were opened in Paris
on the 7th November 1455, and the whole winter
was spent in receiving the evidence of numerous
witnesses at Rouen, Paris, Orleans, Domremy and
Vancouleurs. Not a single voice dared to make
itself heard against Joan of Arc, and when the
enquiry was finished the materials which it had
yielded towards her defence or rather towards her
glorification were laid before the judges (May 1456).
In the name of Joan*s family her vindicators urged

which I am sure Joan herself would have rigorously forbidden. I
refer to the Submission to the Church." Several writers praise
her for having obstinately refused to make submission and for
wishing to be dependent solely upon her free, unfettered con-
science. But this protestant before Calvin is not the real Joan of
Arc The fact is that by appealing from her judge (who was her
mortal enemy) to the Pope and Council (see Examination of 17th
March) Joan showed no lack of due submission. They told her
that "the ordinary is sole judge in his diocese" ; but the Rota
judge maintains that that is derogating from apostolic authority.
He adds: "Considering that they used that expression, the
judges are more to blame than Joan herself." There is something
ludicrous in maintaining against Rome that Joan was not orthodox,
when Rome (which ought to know) declares that she always had
beensQt

THE REHABILITATION 179

the countless illegalities and iniquities of the first
trial: — ^the fact that the presiding judge was her
mortal enemy and should have refused to officiate ;
the suppression of previous evidence which was not
produced at the trial obviously because it was favour-
able to the accused; the keeping of Joan in a lay
prison both before and after judgment, whereas,
being tried by the Church, she should have been
in the custody of the Church; the absence of an
advocate, although by the rules of the Inquisition
at least one curator was allowed to an accused
person who was still a minor ; the treacherous
character of the examinations; the intricacy and
obscurity of the questions asked ; the advice covertly
whispered to Joan by false friends who were watching
for an opportunity to ruin her ; the corrections intro-
duced into the twelve articles by the assista.nt judges
and not transcribed by Cauchon ; the fact that these
twelve articles were not shown to the accused — but
were nevertheless sent to the University of Paris,
whose decision is nullified by this fact alone that
they had no knowledge of the documents of the
case, but only of this falsified summary; the fact
that Joan's appeal to the Pope was disallowed while
at the very same time it was pretended that she
was unwilling to submit to the Church ; the substitu-
tion, among the documents of the case, of a lengthy
form of abjuration which Joan cannot have seen, for
the fon^i in six lines which was the only one shown
to her; the incoherence and haste of the second
trial which declared her a backslider for having
resumed her men's clothes without investigating the

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JOAN OF ARC

circumstances which perhaps compelled her to re-
sume them; and finally the striking proofs which
may be found throughout the whole trial of her
enemies* hatred, hatred so bitter that the very
instant after the Church had abandoned her to
the secular power the accused was sent to the
stake without having been condemned by the civil
judge.

When all these iniquities of the former trial had
been stated without a single voice being raised in
defence of the judges, a complete summary of the
affair, in the form of a treatise, was drawn up by
the Inquisitor Jean Brdhal. The objects of this
treatise were to enumerate the grounds for the annul-
ment of the trial ; to demonstrate the innocence of
the condemned woman ; and to re-establish the true
doctrine of the Church upon the delicate points
(especially with regard to visions and submission
to the Church) which had been a£Eected by the
sentence of condemnation.

Finally, on the 7th July 1456, in the great hall
of the archbishop's palace at Rouen, in the same
town and not far from the very spot which had
witnessed her infamous execution, the solemn judg-
ment was delivered which reversed, annulled, struck
out and entirely abolished the sentence pronounced
against Joan of Arc and rehabilitated her memory.

Thus did the universal Church, through the voice
of an appellate court constituted by the Pope, her
supreme head, wipe out the unjust, false and
iniquitous act of a local ecclesiastical tribunal. Joan
had been condemned by a bishop and by theologians

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THE REHABILITATION 181

whose legal right to judge her is open to question,
and whose injustice, in the course of the trial which
they a£Porded her and in the double sentence which
terminated it, is manifest. From this shameful
sentence she was relieved by the judgment of a
superior and entirely disinterested tribunal. The
king and the Pope had nothing to gain from this
act of just reparation. The king recalled to every-
one's memory that he had long been ungrateful, or,
at any rate, forgetful ; and the Pope, in quashing,
after so long an interval, the unjust decision of a
Church court, admitted that he had long been de-
ceived by the false reports which the University of
Paris had presented to him. All the more credit
is due to them both for having thought only of
justice in the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc.

Saintliness is not the privilege of any age, or sex, or
profession or mode of life. Among the saints are
found kings and beggars, monks and warriors, the
learned and the ignorant. Some have prayed in the
desert ; others have borne their part in the tumult
of the world. Some have concealed themselves in
cloisters; others have drawn all eyes upon them-
selves by illustrious deeds. To those who judge by
outward appearances the saints differ among them-
selves no less than the rest of mankind, and in the
eyes of the profane it is a matter for wonder that
men and women so diverse should be brought together
by the common homage which is paid to all.

What, then, is the characteristic which is common
to all, and which makes them saints without making
them like one another? What is the necessary.

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JOAN OF ARC

essential, invariable sign of saintliness? Is it not
the ardent and unremitting desire of a human soul
to accomplish within itself the divine will? That
man is a saint who honestly and with all his soul
and power seeks to learn what is God's will in regard
to him, and who, when he has learnt it, has only one
desire and thought — to do God's will, braving all
things even unto death.

It is by virtue of this absolute submission to the
divine will that Joan of Arc attains to saintliness.
Her wonderful patriotism is of a very peculiar and
rare kind, for she loved Prance in God. Patriotism,
however, is not necessarily based upon religion.
Other ages have seen noble-hearted women and
heroic children giving up their lives to stay the
alien invader without being animated by any
religious sentiment. These were patriots without
being saints. They are well worthy of our admira-
tion, if only because they have known how to brave
death ; but their heroism is not saintliness. Saintli-
ness comes from God alone.

It was in God that Joan loved Prance, just as
so many other saints have loved the poor in God.
Indeed her passionate love for Prance resembles
that love for the poor by which so many saints have
been consumed. The Prance of 1429 was poor
among the poor ; ^ and Joan saw " the great distress "

^ Thus Martin le Franc depicts her in these beautiful lines from
the Champion des Dames : —

II m'est avis que je la voie,
Elle, jadis reine puissante.
Errant sans sentier ni sans voie,
En habit de pauvre servante !

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THE REHABILITATION 183

into which the kingdom had fallen with the same
pitying eyes with which she watched the naked and
famished vagrants passing along the road. Her
patriotism, based upon love, was neither arrogant
nor aggressive ; it claimed for Prance neither con-
quests nor dominion ; it ignored those delusive words,
" glory " and " prowess," and was content if France
should one day be at peace, happy, free, and should
be restored once more to herself and to her king —
and to God from whom the king held her. Joan's
patriotism threatened no one ; it allowed to strangers
in their own countries the same rights which it claimed
for Frenchmen in France. But (she said) those rights
must be granted. It is God*s will ; and our just cause
is His. Joan of Arc in fighting for France believed
that she was fighting for God so long as the enemy
held our soil and imposed his king upon us in place
of our own. And when like hypocrites they said to
her, "God does^ not love the English then?" she
replied, " God loves the English when they are in
their own country. He does not love them in this
country which they have unjustly taken possession of.
It is not the English that God hates, but injustice.'*
God is justice itself, and so Joan fought for God,

Toute couverte de ruine.

Noire de coups et de battures,

Criant le meurtre et la famine,

Jet^ aux pries aventures.
(I seem to see her, once a powerful Queen, wandering aimlessly
without a guide, clothed like a poor serving-maid ! Ruined, bruised
with blows, proclaiming murder and famine, fallen upon most evil
days. )

It was this France, vagrant, naked, dying, desperate, that Joan
of Arc loved, comforted, revived and saved.

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JOAN OF ARC

for the right and for France without distingiiiRhing
between these three causes. Those who have repre-
sented her as a virgin warrior, an heroic amazon,
altogether misunderstood the story of her life. Joan
never loved war ; she made war in obedience to God,
who had pleased to choose her for that purpose.
She fought with enthusiasm because she felt the
breath of God upon her and rq'oiced in abandoning
herself to that inspiration ; but she fought without
pleasure. She threw herself into twenty fights, but
she never struck a single blow. Surely, then, hers
was not a really warlike spirit. Gentle, humane,
easily moved to tears, compassionate towards the
vanquished as towards all who were afiGUcted, she
fought as would have fought the angel who appeared
to her and encouraged her in her battles; terrible
and calm, like the angel Michael, bearing in her
hand the sword of God, of justice and of right.
But in her heart was peace, and we can see no trace
in her of the warlike frenzy which distinguishes the
true soldier — frenzy with a fine flower of passion, but
rooted in savagery and barbarism.

And so she deserves ever to be regarded as the
incarnation of all that is purest and most blameless
in patriotism, and of all that is most submissive to
God and obedient to his call in saintliness. This
double glory adorns her brow for all time. She
loved her country even unto death ; and she gave to
that love for a transitory object the sacred character
of an imperishable and divine love, by indissolubly
uniting God and France in the same devotedness,
the same sacrifice and the same martyrdom.

APPENDIX

DECREE CONCERNING THE CAUSE FOR THE BEATIFICA-
TION AND CANONISATION OP THE VENERABLE
SERVANT OP GOD, JOAN OF ARC.

/^N the 18th May 1869, upon the occasion of

the annual festival celebrated at Orleans in
honour of Joan of Arc, Mgr. Dupanloup, Bishop
of Orleans, with twelve other bishops, addressed to
the Holy Father a petition for the purpose of
obtaining the canonisation of Joan of Arc. Pius IX«
replied by requesting the Ordinary to proceed to
a preliminary enquiry.

This was conducted at Orleans, commencing in
1874 and concluding in 1888. The results of the
enquiry were laid before the Congregation of Rites
at Rome on the 27th January 1894, when the vote
was favourable to the introduction of the cause.
On the same day His Holiness Pope Leo XIII.
affixed his signature to the conclusions of the Con-
gregation, and the following decree was published : —

Decree concerning the Orleans cause for the
Beatification and Canonisation of the Vener-
able Servant of God, Joan of Arc^ Virgin^
known as the Maid of Orleans.

The Question being
Should the commission for the introduction of

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JOAN OF ARC

the cause in the circumstances and for the
purpose in question be signed ?

God who, as the Apostle says, "calleth those things
which be not as though they were," as in former
times he had, in his designs, chosen Deborah and
Judith to confound the mighty, at the beginning
of the fifteenth century raised up Joan of Arc to
restore her country's fortunes which had been almost
destroyed by the desperate war between the French
and English, and at the same time to reclaim the
liberty and glory of afflicted religion.

She was born in Lorraine^ on the 6th February
1412, of parents who were of humble station but
remarkable for their traditional piety. Trained in
good morals, she was distinguished from her earliest
years by every Christian virtue, and especially by
the angelic chastity of her life. While still a little
girl, fearing God in the simplicity and innocence of her
hearty she assisted her parents in their rustic
labours ; in the house her fingers worked the spindle ;
in the fields she followed her father and sometimes
willingly drove the plough. Nevertheless the pious
child was daily growing in heavenly grace.

When she had attained the age of seventeen, it
was made known to her through a vision from on
high that she must go and seek Charles, the Dauphin
of France, to reveal to him a secret which she had
received from God. The good and simple maiden,
sustained only by the spirit of obedience and ani-
mated by a wonderful charity, at once put her hand

^ See above, p. 3, n. 2.

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187

to the great work, and having left her country and
her parents and gone through the innumerable
dangers by which her road was beset, appeared
before the king at the town of Chinon; and with
a frank and virile spirit disclosed to him, and to him
alone, what she had learned from heaven. She
added that she had been sent by God to deliver
the besieged city of Orleans, and then to conduct
the prince to Rheims where, Jesus Christ being
proclaimed Supreme King of Prance, Charles would
receive in His place coronation and the insignia of
royalty. The king marvelled when he heard these
things, but, in order to proceed with the greater
prudence and safety in so important a matter, he
sent Joan to Poitiers to be examined by a committee
of most illustrious men assembled there, among
them being the Archbishop of Rheims, chancellor of
the kingdom, the Bishops of Poitiers and Maguelone,
and eminent doctors, both of the secular clergy and
of the regular clergy. All these men shortly after-
wards agreed in sending Joan back with a striking
testimonial addressed to the king, in which they
testified to her faith, piety, simplicity and virginity,
and acknowledged her divine mission.

And then, to the wonder of all beholders, this
young girl, who knew the use of neither helmet nor
buckler, mounted a horse, brandishing in one hand a
sword and carrying in the other a standard whereon
was depicted the image of the Redeemer, plunged
into the fatigues and perils of war and fearlessly
sprang into the midst of her enemies. It is difficult
to realise her bravery in action and her patience in

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JOAN OP ARC

bearing the insults and mockery of her foes, and
the tears and fasts and prayers which she offered
to God first of all to obtain the deliverance of
Orleans, and then, after other victories of the
French arms, when she had restored and secured
the kingdom's rights, to remove from the future,
with the help of God, all the dangers which
threatened the public peace and prosperity or were
able to disturb the religion of her ancestors.

Always accompanied by her confessor, Joan took
every means to remove from the army whatever
might corrupt morals or incite to evil, and had
recourse to the holy priests to encourage the
piety of the soldiers. But the most powerful
means of all was the example of the Maid herself,
who was almost angelic in the exercise of all the
virtues, and especially in the love which animated
her for God and for her neighbour. This love was
so strong even towards enemies that not only did
Joan never wound anyone with sword or lance, but,
to the wonder of all who beheld her, she raised,
succoured and cared for the wounded enemies whom
she saw stretched upon the ground.

At last, bearing everywhere the part of an active
leader, she raised the siege of Orleans and brought
peace to the terrified inhabitants. To Joan should
also be attributed the fact that the whole country
watered by the Loire, the territory of Troyes and
the city of Rheims, where at length the Dauphin
Charles was solemnly crowned, returned to their
allegiance to the king.

In return for so many and such great services.

APPENDIX

189

all kinds of suffering were, by the will of God,
who wished to prove his servant, inflicted upon the
Maid. Abandoned or betrayed by her own friends,
she fell into the cruel hands of her enemies, who
sold her for a money price. Loaded with chains
and tortured day and night in her prison in a
thousand ways, she was at length, by a crowning
crime, burned at the stake as one tainted with
heresy and a backslider — ^the iniquitous sentence
of judges who were in league with the schismatical
Council of Basle.^

Fortified by the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist,
in the midst of the flames she kept her eyes fixed
upon the cross, and^ ceaselessly repeating the name
of Jesus, won the precious death of the just. Her
death, which, according to report, was signalised by
heavenly prodigies, excited to such a degree the
admiration of those who witnessed it that her
enemies were terrified.

Several returned from this horrible spectacle
striking their breasts. The executioner publicly
declared the innocence of the Maid whose death he
had caused. Men came to their senses, communed
with themselves, and upon the very scene of the
execution began to venerate the saintly character of
Joan. It was to prevent the people from keeping
relics of her that her ashes and her heart, which
had remained untouched in the midst of the flames
and from which the blood was still flowing, were
together thrown into the river by her enemies.

^ See above, p. 140, n. i. In the text the words are : Qui
schismatUo BasiUa concUio stuMant,

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JOAN OP ARC

When Charles VI I. had recovered possession of his
kingdom and order had been restored in the public
affairs of Prance, Pope Calixtus III.9 upon the
petition of the mother and brothers of Joan herself,
appointed apostolical judges to revise the trial by
virtue of which the Maid had been condenmed to
the stake. These judges, after having heard a
hundred and twenty witnesses of all ages and con-
ditions of life, pronounced a judgment, on the 7th
July 1456, by which the former sentence was
annulled and the Maid's innocence was declared.

The fame of her saintliness having been confirmed
during four centuries without interruption, it finally
came to pass, in our own time, that the customary
enquiry into this reputation for saintliness and
virtue was held in the ecclesiastical court of Orleans.
This enquiry having been duly carried out and
forwarded to the Holy Congregation of Rites, our
Holy Father, Pope Leo XIII., was pleased to allow
that the question as to the signature of the com-
mission for introducing the cause of the servant of
God should be submitted (and it was submitted) at
the ordinary meeting of the same Holy Congregation.

Consequently, at the instance of the Right
Reverend Bishop of Orleans and of the Right
Reverend Arthur Captier, Superior General of the
Society of St Sulpice, the postulator of the cause,
and after a consideration of the letters in support
written by a great number of Most Eminent
and Right Reverend cardinals of the Holy Roman
Church, and bishops, not only of Prance but of
diverse distant countries, letters to which a great

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APPENDIX 191

many leading members of the clergy, and as it were,
the entire Catholic world, have given their adherence,
at the ordinary meeting of the Holy Congregation
held at the Vatican on the day mentioned below,
the following question was proposed for discussion
by the Most Eminent and Right Reverend Cardinal
Lucide- Marie Parocchi, Bishop of Albano and
Reporter of the cause, namely : Should the commission
for the introduction of the cause in the circumstances
and for the purpose in question he signed ?

And the said Holy Congregation, having maturely
weighed all the facts and having heard the Reverend
Father Augustin Caprara, Promoter of the Holy
Faith, thought fit to reply : The commission ought to
he signed if it please His Holiness, 27th January 1894.

All these things having been reported to our Holy
Father Pope Leo XIII. by me, the undersigned,
cardinal prefect of the said Holy Congregation, His
Holiness, ratifying the rescript of the Holy Con-
gregation, has deigned to sign with his own hand
the commission for the introduction of the cause of
the Venerable Servant of God, Joan of Arc, Virgin,
on the same day of the same month of the same
year.

CAJETAN, CARDINAL ALOISI-MASELLA,
Prefect of the Holy Congregation of Rites,

VINCENT NUSSI,

Secretary to the Holy Congregation of Rites,

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stamped below.

A fine of five cents a day is incurred
by retaining it beyond the specified
time.

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